US Vice President JD Vance has acknowledged that there have been violations of a just-brokered ceasefire agreement with Iran, but said overall momentum is moving in the right direction.
"Ceasefires are always messy. An hour after the president announced the ceasefire, the Iranians launched a bunch of missiles, then the Israelis responded, then some of the Gulf Arab states responded. This is the nature of a ceasefire," Vance told reporters on Wednesday as he prepared to depart from Budapest, Hungary.
"What we have been very clear about is that we want to stop the bombing. We want our allies to stop the bombing, and we want the Iranians to do the same thing. We're seeing evidence that things are going in the right direction, but it's going to take a little time," he added.
Vance noted that Iran's position that Lebanon is covered by the ceasefire "is a reasonable misunderstanding, but neither us nor the Israelis said that that was going to be part of the ceasefire."
"We're working with people to try to get through some of these things, but fundamentally, we're on the right track. We got a lot more to do," he said.
Ceasefire encompasses Lebanon
The upbeat assessment came after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) vowed earlier in the day to make Israel "regret" any further attacks on Lebanon, following a sweeping barrage across the country, including the capital Beirut, in the hours after the ceasefire was brokered.
The US has maintained that Israel's war in Lebanon is not covered by the truce's terms, but Pakistani mediators said the ceasefire encompasses the country.
Hezbollah has so far adhered to the pact despite continued Israeli strikes, which reportedly killed over 250 people and wounded more than 1,100 on Wednesday.
"If they don't give us what we need, then I think it's going to be bad. But I'm optimistic that the Iranians are going to be smart, that they're going to negotiate in good faith."
