Israeli strikes on Beirut nearly derailed peace deal with Iran, Vance says

A peace deal between the U.S. and Iran is set to be signed on Friday in Geneva, Switzerland, but Vice President JD Vance said the process nearly collapsed after Israel launched missile strikes against Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists in Beirut this weekend.

Following the Israeli strikes, Qatari mediators conducted negotiations in Tehran in coordination with the United States, Fox News reported. 

Vance said that the strikes had U.S. negotiators "very worried," and intelligence had suggested that Iran would launch a massive retaliatory strike against Israel. 

Iran "assured us that they were not going to respond to the Israelis, and they were going to sign this agreement and get peace," Vance said in the Fox interview. Trump also got involved to make sure Iran didn't escalate the situation with a strike against Israel, which could have undermined the deal. 

Vance said that there are "a lot of people in the Middle East" who oppose the deal and want to stop it from happening.