Trump slams Israel for continuing to jeopardize US-Iran truce signing awaited on Friday

Both Washington and Tehran have announced that a framework for a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to end the months-long war has been agreed. Vice President J.D. Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will travel to Geneva for a formal signing ceremony this Friday. Trump and Vance have both signed the memo electronically, but Trump indicated that he will not attend the ceremony, despite already being in Europe this week for the G7 Summit.

Vance spoke to several media outlets this week and indicated the MOU is one and a half pages long. Following the signing, it will serve as a framework to begin negotiations on larger issues, including Iran’s nuclear program and possible sanctions relief and unfreezing of Iranian assets by the US. Vance insisted that sanctions relief and unfreezing of Iranian assets will only come as goodwill gestures and as Iran reaches progress milestones towards meeting their obligations.

Reports from the Iranian and American sides differ in terms of how each is selling the deal to domestically. For example, each side has a different spin on how much money is to be released to Iran and when and where the money will come from. Iran could benefit in other ways according to Vance with an ultimate reintegration of Iran into the world economy, which Vance said would benefit the US economy as well. All of this is conditional on Iran meeting its obligations.

Israel’s continued aggression in Lebanon jeopardizes deal

Another (and arguably more crucial) point that US and Iranian reports differ on is the agreement’s language regarding Israel and Lebanon. Iran has said from the beginning that any deal between the US and Iran must include all fronts, which includes Israel’s invasion and bombing campaign in Lebanon. Iran insists that the deal includes a requirement for Israel to withdraw from Lebanese territory it has seized, which amounts to about 1/10 of the country. Israel has shown no signs of being willing to withdraw and seems intent on permanently annexing the territory as they have done in Syria. At least one anonymous US official has contradicted Iran’s claim that the deal requires Israel’s full military withdrawal from Lebanese territory.

Furthermore, Israel has continued to bomb the suburbs of Beirut and the south of Lebanon. On June 14, as the memorandum of understanding was being finalized, Israel bombed Dahiyeh, a neighborhood of Beirut. In order to prevent a retaliation from Iran against Israel, Trump reportedly had to offer more concessions to Tehran.

On Tuesday, requirement for Israel to withdraw from Lebanese territory while speaking at the G7 Summit. Trump told reporters he was “not happy” with how Israel had conducted themselves in Lebanon, and particularly with Israel’s bombing of Beirut on Sunday which he said jeopardized the emerging peace deal. “Israel’s fighting Hezbollah too long and too many people are being killed. And you don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you are looking for somebody, because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses and they are not all Hezbollah, that I can tell you,” Trump said. Trump even suggested that if Israel can’t take on Hezbollah in Lebanon “without killing everyone else” then they should allow Ahmed Al-Sharaa (leader of Syria and former al Qaeda commander) to take care of it.

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