Ceasefires 'always messy': US VP Vance responds to Iran's claim of deal violation

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US Vice President on Wednesday said that ceasefires are "always messy", while speaking to press on leaving Hungary.

He also responded to MB Ghalibaf's comments on X as the Iranian Parliament Speaker said that three points of the ceasefire were not honoured.

Questioning the Iranian speaker's grasp of the English language and the negotiations, Vance said, "because there are things that he said, frankly, that didn't make sense in the context of negotiations that we've had".

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The Iranian Parliament speaker had earlier claimed that US was violating three points of the ceasefire, which include ongoing hostilities in Lebanon, a drone allegedly violating Iranian airspace, and "denial of Iran's right to enrichment" of uranium.

Vance, however, said that if Ghalibaf was only concerned with three points from the plan, then two sides must share a lot of common ground.

"First of all, he talked about an attack that allegedly happened on Iran and how that was a violation of the ceasefire. Ceasefires are always messy," the Vice President said.

"This is the nature of a ceasefire," Vance continued. "No ceasefire ever goes without a little bit of choppiness. 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."

Vance also drew a parallel to his wife skydiving and Ghalibaf saying that uranium enrichment is Iran's "right". He said that while his wife has the right to skydive he does not want her "jumping out of an airplane" — so she does not.

"We don't really concern ourselves with what they claim they have the right to do. We concern ourselves with what they actually do," he said.

Returning to the question of Lebanon's exclusion from the ceasefire, Vance again characterised it as a "reasonable misunderstanding," while firmly stating that the US "never made that promise." Israel has continued to carry out strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

"First of all, I actually think, and there's a lot of bad faith negotiation and a lot of bad faith, you know, propaganda going on," Vance said.

"I think this comes from a legitimate misunderstanding. I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn't."

We never indicated that was going to be the case. What we said is that the ceasefire would be focused on Iran, and the ceasefire would be focused on America's allies, both Israel and the Gulf Arab states."

"If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart... over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them, and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that's ultimately their choice."

A day after Washington and Tehran agreed a two-week truce, Israel carried out its heaviest strikes on Lebanon since Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah joined the war in early March.

The strikes killed at least 112 people and wounded hundreds, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

But Vance said that the Israelis had offered to show restraint.

"The Israelis... have actually offered to be, frankly, to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon, because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful," Vance said.

The US VicePpresident warned that President Donald Trump expected Iran to keep its promise to open the Strait of Hormuz to oil traffic.

(With inputs from AFP)