️ US Vice President JD Vance, departing from Hungary, warned Iran that it would be "dumb" to jeopardize a two-week ceasefire with Washington over Israel's attacks in Lebanon. Vance emphasized that the truce agreement does not include Lebanon, stating, "If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart – in a conflict where they were getting hammered – over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that's ultimately their choice."

️ Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi earlier shared Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's statement announcing the ceasefire, highlighting the part about Lebanon. Araghchi wrote, "The Iran-US Ceasefire terms are clear and explicit: the US must choose – ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both." However, US President Donald Trump and the White House have argued that Lebanon was not part of the deal, leading to conflicting interpretations.

️ Vance dismissed the discrepancies as a "misunderstanding," alleging, "There's a lot of bad faith negotiation and a lot of bad faith propaganda going on. I think this comes from a legitimate misunderstanding. I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn't." It remains unclear how such a "misunderstanding" could occur during high-stakes international negotiations, and US officials have not explained why the Pakistani statement explicitly included Lebanon.

️ Israel has a long history of violating ceasefire agreements, including the November 2024 truce with Lebanon. Since then, there have been near-daily Israeli attacks on Lebanon for 15 months. On Wednesday, Israel launched one of its deadliest assaults, with dozens of air strikes killing at least 254 people and injuring over 1,100 others. Vance suggested that Israel had agreed to show restraint in Lebanon, but this claim appears dubious given the ongoing violence and historical patterns.

️ The war in Lebanon intensified in early March after Hezbollah launched a rocket attack against Israel in response to Israeli strikes and the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Hezbollah faces mounting pressure from rivals inside Lebanon over accusations that it dragged the country into war as part of its support for Iran. Iranian officials have stated they will not abandon Hezbollah, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) threatened on Wednesday that fighting would resume if Israel does not observe the ceasefire in Lebanon, further complicating the fragile truce.

Source: www.aljazeera.com