Image Credit: RONEN ZVULUN / Contributor / Getty Images 
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue fighting Iran’s “terror regime and its proxies.”
Netanyahu made the vow in a post on X on Saturday, as US Vice President JD Vance was engaged in diplomatic talks to end the war, in Islamabad, Pakistan. He also took a swipe at Turkey, which he accused of killing its own citizens.
“Israel under my leadership will continue to fight Iran’s terror regime and its proxies, unlike Erdogan who accommodates them and massacred his own Kurdish citizens,” Netanyahu posted.
Israeli forces have continued to strike targets in Lebanon after the 7 April ceasefire with Iran, putting strains on negotiations.
Announcing the ceasefire, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wrote that “the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, along with their allies, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere including Lebanon and elsewhere, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.”
Vice President JD Vance then contradicted Sharif, saying the ceasefire with Iran did not include Lebanon.
Israel and Lebanon had been due to hold talks in the US this coming week, but the status of those talks are unclear at present after the meeting between Vice President Vance and an Iranian delegation ended without agreement.
After nearly a full day of negotiation in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, in a terse statement Vice President JD Vance said the Iranian delegation had rejected US terms.
“We have been at it now for 21 hours, and we’ve had a number of substantive discussions with the Iranians. That’s the good news,” Vance said.
“The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement, and I think that’s bad news for Iran much more than it’s bad news for the United States of America.”
The talks began four days after President Donald Trump agreed a two-week ceasefire with Iran.
According to Vance, the main stumbling block was Iran’s refusal to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
“The simple question is, do we see a fundamental commitment of will for the Iranians not to develop a nuclear weapon, not just now, not just two years from now, but for the long term. We haven’t seen that yet. We hope that we will,” Vance said.
Before the meeting, Iran submitted a list of ten proposals. President Trump did not agree to the proposals, but said they were a “workable basis” for negotiations.
Vance ended his remarks to the press by saying, “We’ve made very clear what our red lines are, what things we’re willing to accommodate them on, and what things we’re not willing to accommodate them on.”
