Vance Says Iran Must Rein In Hezbollah, Unfrozen Assets Must Aid Iranian People

GENEVA, Jun 22: US Vice President JD Vance said Monday that Washington has helped establish a new deconfliction mechanism aimed at preventing clashes involving Israel and Hezbollah from escalating into a wider regional conflict.

Speaking in Buergenstock, Switzerland, Vance said the mechanism was designed to support both Israel’s security and Lebanon’s sovereignty , while requiring coordination with the Lebanese armed forces and pressure on Iran to restrain Hezbollah.

“Israel’s security is protected. And that’s going to require some coordination with the Lebanese armed forces. And also it’s going to require the Iranians to rein in Hezbollah. That’s all the sort of things that we were talking about yesterday,” Vance said.

Vance said Israel and other countries in the region had the right to self-defense, but added that Washington wanted military responses to be accompanied by diplomatic efforts aimed at de-escalation.

According to Vance, the deconfliction mechanism was established at around 4 p.m. local time on Sunday and had already helped produce what he described as the calmest 24-hour period in Lebanon in recent days.

He also said Israel had made clear it had no territorial ambitions in southern Lebanon, adding that its presence there was driven by security concerns related to Hezbollah fire into Israeli territory.

Vance also said any future unfreezing of Iranian assets should take place through a controlled process to ensure the funds benefit the Iranian people and are not used to finance terrorism.

“One of the other things that we wanted to do was set up a process where if we ever unfreeze Iranian assets, we can ensure that Iranian money goes to help the people of Iran and not to fund terrorism,” he said.

Vance said any release of frozen Iranian assets would require approval from both the United States and Qatar .

“If there are any frozen Iranian assets that are unfrozen, then we have approval over that process,” Vance said. “The Qataris have approval over that process.”

He said the funds would be directed toward purchasing American agricultural products, including soy, corn and wheat, for the benefit of the Iranian people.

“If Iranian assets are ever unfrozen, they’re going to go to make American farmers richer and to feed the Iranian people. That’s a very, very good and very classic Trump deal,” Vance added.