Vice President Vance defends interim deal with Iran as a “win-win,” presidents Israel will join an agreement with Iran later on.By World Israel News StaffVice President JD Vance said Monday that he expects Israel to eventually join the emerging US-Iran agreement, even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that Israel is not a party to the memorandum of understanding and will preserve its freedom of action in Lebanon.Vance made the comments during a series of television interviews after President Donald Trump announced Sunday that Washington and Tehran had signed a preliminary memorandum aimed at extending a ceasefire, reopening the Strait of Hormuz and launching 60 days of talks on a long-term settlement over Iran’s nuclear program.“What we know is this agreement is going to make Israel safer; it’s going to make the entire region safer,” Vance told NBC.“What I’ve seen is a lot of misinformation about this agreement — sometimes in the Iranian media, sometimes in the Israeli media,” he said.“We believe quite firmly that when the Israeli people understand what’s in this agreement, they’re going to see this as a pathway to a new Middle East, to peace and prosperity in that region,” Vance added.“That’s all we can really ask for. We feel quite confident the Israelis are going to be bought in on this when we get a little further down the road.”The MOU has reportedly been signed digitally and is expected to be formally signed Friday in Switzerland, where US and Iranian representatives are also expected to begin the next phase of talks.The full text has not been released, and conflicting accounts from Washington, Tehran and Jerusalem have fueled debate over the agreement’s scope.Vance said the nuclear provisions include the removal of Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile.“One of the core parts of the agreement is that the [International Atomic Energy Agency] and the United States are going to help Iran destroy the highly enriched stockpile, and that’s something that’s spelled out very clearly,” Vance said.But he also acknowledged that the document leaves major details for future negotiations.“The MOU is about a page and a half, so it is a very general document,” Vance said in a separate interview. “On a number of issues, we are going to have to figure this stuff out during the technical negotiation phase.”The US has said it wants Iran to give up uranium enrichment for at least 20 years and remove its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Iran has not publicly acknowledged accepting those terms and has maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful.The agreement has drawn sharp criticism in Israel, where opposition politicians and some members of Netanyahu’s coalition have described it as a diplomatic failure that could restrict Israeli military operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon.Netanyahu said Monday that Israel was not a party to the MOU and had not yet received its full details. He said Israel would keep troops in southern Lebanon and maintain freedom of action against Hezbollah.“Iran wanted us to withdraw from there. That did not happen. Do you know why it did not happen? Among other reasons, because I stood very, very firm. I was very, very resolute on this matter. And I think our American friends respect that resoluteness and that firm stance,” Netanyahu said.In a video statement, Vance defended the interim agreement, calling it a “win-win for the American people,” regardless of how Iran behaves in future negotiations.“On the one hand, if the Iranians make the long-term commitments never to rebuild, then they’re going to be welcomed into the world economy,” Vance said.“If on the other hand, they try to rebuild that nuclear program, they’re never going to have the resources in order to do so.”“We ensure Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon either way.”The post Vance ‘confident’ Israel will sign on to Iran deal appeared first on World Israel News.