Vice President JD Vance has largely stayed on the sidelines of President Donald Trump's war against Iran, but his advisers believe that Israel is trying to pull him into a more active role in the conflict.
The 42-year-old vice president is expected to be the top U.S. negotiator in potential peace talks with Iran and has already spoken multiple times by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but Vance advisers suspect some in Israel are trying to undermine him because he's insufficiently hawkish, reported Axios.
"Vance's team suspects Israel of spreading the word that Iran wants to negotiate with Vance," Axios reported.
Adviser Andrew Surabian denied a CNN report that Iran preferred to negotiate with the vice president, saying it was "utter fiction" based on "two regional sources," and he alleged that the network "fell for a coordinated foreign propaganda op meant to undermine President Trump, VP Vance and the entire Admin, as they engage in negotiations."
Another administration official explicitly blamed Israel for trying to pull Vance into the middle of negotiations on Israel, which wants at least several more weeks of war to accomplish its military goals.
"It's an Israeli op against JD," that administration official told Axios.
White House officials began to suspect some Israeli government officials were trying to besmirch Vance after a testy phone call Monday between the vice president and Netanyahu, whom he accused of presenting an overly optimistic view of how the war would unfold.
"Before the war, Bibi really sold it to the president as being easy, as regime change being a lot likelier than it was, and the VP was clear-eyed about some of those statements," said a U.S. source.
A right-wing Israeli newspaper owned by GOP mega-donor Miriam Adelson reported the following day that Vance had berated Netanyahu about settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, but multiple U.S. and Israeli sources said that report was false, and the vice president's advisers suspect it was leaked by Israel.
Vance is seen as a more attractive negotiator than Trump's special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner – who is also the president's son-in-law – by Iran, which reputedly believes that the vice president is inclined to make a deal and get out of the war.
"If the Iranians can't strike a deal with Vance, they don't get a deal – he's the best they're gonna get," said a senior administration official.
A White House official told Axios that Vance is ready to "take his place onstage," but only as part of direct negotiations, and he has been "extensively involved" in diplomacy with Iran and also met in recent days with senior Emirati officials and the prime minister of Qatar.
"He has his own views, but he is going to work according to Trump instructions, and try and achieve an outcome that the president likes," said a source close to Vance.
