Vice President JD Vance aggressively defended the controversial peace deal with Iran, and warned Israel not to criticize President Donald Trump over the agreement.

In a White House press briefing, Vance embraced his new role as the top cheerleader for the deal that some critics say amounts to a capitulation to the Islamic Republic and a sell out of Israel.

“This is an excellent thing for the American people,” Vance said.

He also delivered an extraordinary shot across the bow at Israel, where the deal has come under withering attack because it calls for Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon and makes no mention of Iran’s ballistic missiles that can strike Israel, nor ending aid to anti-Israel proxy groups like Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis.

“Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel,” Vance said. He added, “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.”

Vance asserted that the memorandum of understanding with Iran, with Trump signed at the Versailles Palace in Paris the night before, amounted to a diplomatic win and a no-brainer good deal for the U.S.

He claimed Iran made many additional verbal agreements, including commitments on its nuclear program, though they don’t appear in the deal.

“Fundamentally, whether they’re written down or spoken, this is why we structured the deal the way we did,” he said. “We don’t trust words. We trust actions.”

Vance laughed off Trump’s joke from a day earlier that he would blame the veep if the deal goes sour. But the joke spotlights the very real political danger Vance is assuming by becoming the top defender of the deal while others, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio stay quiet.

Vance was originally supposed to sign the deal on behalf of the U.S. on Friday in Geneva. But Trump effectively overrode that plan by signing it himself in France.

The veep now says he expects to lead a team that will launch negotiations with Iran as soon as this weekend on the proposed 60-day period of talks on Tehran’s nuclear program.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamanei endorsed the deal, although he suggested the talks would not be smooth sailing for the U.S.

“It is obvious that the face-to-face negotiations that will be held in the future will not mean accepting the enemy’s opinion,” Khamenei said in a statement read on state media.

Conservatives, including some Trump supporters, are harshly criticizing the deal, which they say ends the war largely on Iran’s terms and leaves Tehran in a stronger position than when the war started.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a possible 2028 presidential hopeful, said Trump and Vance were getting “bad advice.”

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi, called the deal “out of step with the president’s priorities” and said a planned $300 billion Iran reconstruction fund bankrolled by Western-allied Gulf Arab nations “would make Iran’s payoff under (President Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal) a mere pittance.”

In Israel, the reaction was much harsher, from across the political spectrum.

Even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held off on criticizing Trump, his allies and rivals alike have united to accuse the White House of betraying Israel by ending the war and handing Iran economic carrots without any firm commitments on proxy groups or the nuclear program.

Trump and Vance even went so far as to bless Iran’s ballistic missile program, saying Tehran has the right to defend itself.

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