Vance slams Israel for ‘killing its way out of problems,’ claims Iran needs ballistic missiles for ‘self-defense’

Apparently drawing a parallel between Iran and Israel, Vance said, “You can’t tell the country, whether Israel or Iran, they’re not allowed to have any self-defense.”

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

U.S. Vice President JD Vance defended the memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran on Thursday, criticizing Israeli concerns about the agreement and arguing that opposition to the deal was driven by misinformation and mistrust.

Speaking to The New York Times, Vance described the reaction in Israel to the agreement, which was signed digitally by President Donald Trump on Wednesday night in Versailles, as a “freakout” that stemmed from a lack of confidence in Washington.

“I find this whole freakout in Israel a little bit odd because I think that it comes from a place of mistrust, and I think that America has earned the trust of that region of the world,” Vance said.

“We’ve done a very good job by that particular country and that particular government, and I think that the idea that we’ve made a terrible deal is not supported by the facts, but just doesn’t make any sense if you consider the broad length of the relationship,” he added.

Vance said concerns within Israel over concessions to Tehran amounted to a “weird panic” and argued that any benefits provided to Iran, including sanctions relief, would depend on changes in Iranian conduct.

“There is this weird panic almost in the Israeli system that I’ve picked up on where they assume that everything that is contemplated that is good for Iran will happen — but that will happen without the Iranians changing any behavior. And I just don’t know why anybody would think that’s true,” he said.

While noting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had not directly criticized the agreement, Vance pointed to opposition from other Israeli officials, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

“It’s clear that large segments of the Israeli political system and population are very sensitive about this deal,” he said. “But I also think they’re picking up on some misinformation about the deal and running with it and sort of panicking about it.”

Addressing critics of the agreement, Vance said, “I guess my response to them would be: What is your exact proposal? You’re a country of nine million people. You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.”

During a press conference, Vance also defended President Trump’s statement that Iran should be permitted to retain some ballistic missiles.

“All the president said yesterday is that, of course, regional countries don’t give up the right of self-defense,” Vance said.

Apparently drawing a parallel between Iran and Israel, he said, “Israel doesn’t give up the right of self-defense if Hezbollah fires rockets or drones at Israel,” he continued. “You can’t tell the country, whether Israel or Iran, they’re not allowed to have any self-defense.”

Vance said Israel had destroyed much of Iran’s ballistic missile capability and stated that the agreement would prevent Tehran from developing “the kind of missiles that can broadly threaten the entire world.”

“As part of the final deal, what we want to see is Iran not funding regional instability, funding regional terrorism, and of course, [not] trying to rebuild their nuclear weapons program,” he said.