Vance: Israel must ‘respect this peace process,’ heavy IDF strikes in Beirut ‘not acceptable’

Speaking at a White House press conference on the US-Iran memorandum of understanding, US Vice President JD Vance comes down hard on Israeli strikes against Hezbollah in Beirut, noting their civilian death toll, calling them “not acceptable,” and suggesting they threatened to derail US-Iran talks.

Vance asserts that while Israel has a right to defend itself, it also must “respect this peace process.”

Vance’s comments come after US President Donald Trump also lashed out about Israeli strikes in Beirut following Hezbollah attacks, which led to a brief exchange of fire with Iran earlier this month during the talks.

“Israel has the right to defend itself, but fundamentally the Israelis, just like everybody else, have to respect this peace process that is fundamentally good for them and good for the entire region,” Vance says.

He continues, “What the president gets very frustrated [with] sometimes is that we seem to be right on the cusp of a major breakthrough in the agreement, and then all of a sudden, there’s a major explosion that goes off in a civilian population center in Beirut, and a lot of people who have nothing to do with Hezbollah lose their lives. That’s not acceptable. That’s the sort of thing that we’ve asked for closer coordination so that we ensure it doesn’t happen.”

He says that the MOU, which has been harshly criticized across the Israeli political spectrum, could lead to a deal that cuts off Iranian support for Hezbollah, although the MOU does not mention Iran’s network of proxies in the region.

“Our message to the Israelis, just as our message to everybody else, is fundamentally, we want this peace process to be good for you,” Vance says. “We do not want Hezbollah attacking Israel, but in order to ensure that that happens, we have got to actually build the kind of regional framework that can cut off the money to Hezbollah, cut off Iranian support for Hezbollah, and also ensure that Lebanon’s territorial sovereignty is respected by all parties.”