WASHINGTON, June 18. /TASS/. American Vice President JD Vance has slammed the Israeli leadership, calling on the Jewish state to remember that the United States remains its "only powerful ally" in the world.
"What I will say, and this does bother me, is that you have seen people within Bibi [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] cabinet who have come out and attacked the deal, and in some ways very personally attacked the President of the United States, and I guess my message to them would be twofold," Vance said at a press conference at the White House.
"Number one, [US President] Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time, and he happens to be the head of state of the world superpower. If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world. And the second message I would give to some of those cabinet members who are attacking the present of the United States is that over the last three months, two thirds of the defensive weapons that have protected your homeland have been built by American hands and paid for by American tax dollars.
"The problem for Israel is not Donald J. Trump, and anybody in Israel who thinks their biggest problem is the president of the United States needs to wake up and smell the reality of the situation that country is in."
He said he had read an Axios story saying Netanyahu was "fuming" over the United States' deal with Iran. "I saw the Axios report that Netanyahu is fuming, that's not reflective of the conversations that I've had with him, but maybe he's saying something to somebody else that he's not saying to me," Vance said.
He added that Trump expects all friends of the United States in the Middle East, including Israelis and Arabs, to work together to achieve final peace agreements between Washington and Tehran.