Live updates: US and Iran sign initial agreement to end war but tougher talks lie ahead

Vice President JD Vance said that Israeli military operations in Lebanon have sometimes gotten in the way of achieving a breakthrough in negotiations with Iran, which has been a source of frustration for President Donald Trump.

Trump gets “frustrated” sometimes when they seem to be “on the cusp of a major breakthrough in the agreement, and then all of a sudden, there is 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,” Vance said. “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.”

His comments come as Israel has once again vowed that it will not withdraw from Lebanon despite the first bullet point of the US-Iran agreement calling for “the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.” Israel has continued to carry out strikes in southern Lebanon, where it says it is targeting the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

“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 said.

Vance also addressed reports of Israeli government leaders being unhappy with the agreement, saying “it does bother me” to see them personally attacking Trump.

“If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world,” Vance said in a message to the cabinet members. “Over the last three months, two-thirds of the defensive weapons that have protected your homeland have been built by American hands and paid for by American tax dollars.”

This post has been updated with additional comments from Vance.