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WASHINGTON — <\/span>Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio appear to be staking out differing approaches<\/a> to carrying out President Donald Trump\u2019s national security agenda as the possible 2028 presidential rivals jostle for position in a divided Republican Party.<\/p>\n With vastly different backgrounds and policy experience, they have moved along separate paths to stake out territory: Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants with a long history in the Senate and major interest in Latin America<\/a>, and Vance, a child of the Midwest and Marine Corps veteran who served in the Senate for only two years before being tapped as Trump’s 2024 running mate, with a message of opposing foreign wars<\/a>.<\/p>\n While deferential to each other \u2014 and with the White House and State Department denying any suggestion of a rift \u2014 Vance and Rubio appear the most divergent on the Middle East<\/a>.<\/p>\n In discussing Iran, Vance has several times been critical of Israel<\/a> and its actions in Lebanon, saying Trump has been frustrated by Israeli actions against the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah that have angered Iran and made negotiations with Tehran more difficult<\/a>. <\/p>\n Rubio, meanwhile, has remained supportive of Israel or held his tongue, particularly over the situation in Lebanon \u2014 an issue he has taken the lead on and resulted in a preliminary framework agreement<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n “The talk about differences is not idle speculation,” said Dan Fried, a former assistant secretary of state and ambassador to Poland who is now with the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank. \u201cThere is definitely something to it.\u201d<\/p>\n The White House fired back at any suggestions of a rift.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy is the legacy media obsessed with driving a wedge between Vice President Vance and Secretary Rubio that does not exist? There is one camp \u2014 President Trump\u2019s camp \u2014 and the entire administration is fully behind the president\u2019s efforts to ensure Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon,\u201d White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said.<\/p>\n State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott added that “Rubio and the entire administration is 100% in lockstep behind President Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet, according to Trump administration officials familiar with the matter, Rubio was so skeptical of obtaining an acceptable deal with Iran<\/a> that he declined to head the U.S. delegation to the first ceasefire negotiations<\/a> in April in Islamabad, Pakistan.<\/p>\n Vance, however, seeing an opportunity to burnish his foreign policy credentials, jumped on it, asking Trump twice to take the lead before Trump agreed, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations.<\/p>\n Vance did lead the U.S. delegation to the inconclusive meeting in Pakistan, then again this month to talks in Switzerland<\/a>, which followed the signing of a memorandum of understanding<\/a> between the U.S. and Iran. The truce agreed to in that document is very fragile, tested by repeated exchanges of fire<\/a> between the sides in recent days.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s rather unusual for the VP to be given the lead role in a negotiation, but it\u2019s quite possible that Rubio is happy to let him. It\u2019s a pig in a poke. It\u2019s a loser job,\u201d said Ian Kelly, a retired career diplomat and ambassador during the first Trump administration.<\/p>\n He added that both men seem to \u201chave equal ambitions to replace\u201d Trump, but that the president\u2019s semi-joking comments this month that he would blame Vance if the Iran talks do not succeed appeared to suggest that he was being \u201cset up for failure.\u201d<\/p>\n Vance has talked up the chances of success for a broad agreement with Iran, albeit with caveats, while Rubio, although publicly supportive, has repeatedly taken a more agnostic line while denying any division.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re all focused on the jobs in front of us. I think the president loves to stir the pot a little bit and loves the entertainment of it,\u201d Vance said.<\/p>\n \u201cI love Marco,\u201d he said. \u201cI think he\u2019s a great secretary of state. He\u2019s become a very, very dear friend. I think both of us are very much focused on accomplishing the American people\u2019s business right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Rubio also has rejected that there is any schism.<\/p>\n