Gulf region, Israel unhappy with Trump’s Iran MOU despite Vance’s claims

In a surprisingly blunt rebuke, Vice President JD Vance attacked Israeli critics of the Trump administration’s interim peace agreement with Iran on Thursday, saying Persian Gulf countries “love” it.

“Anybody in Israel who thinks their biggest problem is the president of the United States needs to wake up and smell the reality of the situation that country is in,” Vance said in a White House briefing. “Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time.”

Vance was responding to criticism from Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right national security minister, who called for Israel to defy the agreement’s requirement that Israeli troops pull out of southern Lebanon and stop its attacks on the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah operating there.

“We are not partners to this agreement that does not ensure our security, and it does not bind us in any way,” said Ben-Gvir. “We must not compromise.”

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said the Trump administration had been “crystal clear” that the U.S.-Iran agreement would have nothing to do with the Israel Defense Forces’ withdrawal from southern Lebanon.

“We’re encouraged by the fact that the president has been consistently unequivocal about preventing Iran from achieving a nuclear weapon,” Leiter told NPR this week. “We’re less encouraged about the fact that it seems that Lebanon has been included in an agreement with Iran, and we think that that’s unnecessary.”

Officials in Persian Gulf countries criticized the deal as well, with a senior official from the United Arab Emirates describing the mood to MS NOW as “complete disappointment.”

Multiple officials from the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait told MS NOW that the agreement puts no limits on Iran’s ballistic missile and drone programs — the weapons Iran has used to strike airports, energy infrastructure and ports during the war.

Persian Gulf officials also expressed concerns over Iran receiving sanctions relief, frozen assets and compensation that could strengthen it economically at a time when many Gulf states believe the U.S. and other states in the region should have maintained pressure. Like Israeli officials, Gulf officials feel they were “sidelined” by the Trump administration and had a little visible role in shaping the agreement.

Ted Singer, a former senior CIA official who oversaw the agency’s operations in the Middle East, said Netanyahu and other Israeli officials are likely to continue to push Iran to see what they can achieve. 

“He’ll push, test, poke, and pull on loose threads, no doubt,” Singer said. “But he’ll likely steer clear of outright defiance” of the United States.