U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that the United States could restart its military campaign against Iran, but that neither President Donald Trump nor Tehran wants to see fighting resume.
“We can restart the military campaign,” Vance told reporters at a White House briefing, “but that’s not what the president of the United States wants, and that’s not what the Iranians want.”
Vance said the United States and Iran had made “a lot of progress” in talks aimed at preventing Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“We think that we’ve made a lot of progress. We think the Iranians want to make a deal,” Vance said.
Vance said he had just spoken to Trump, who stressed that the core issue for the United States is that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. If that happens, Vance said, countries around the Gulf would then want their own weapon, followed by other countries around the world.
“We want to keep the number of countries that have nuclear weapons small, and that’s why Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” he said.
The United States wants Iran to work with Washington on a process to ensure that Tehran does not rebuild its nuclear weapons capacity in the years to come.
“That’s what we’re trying to accomplish in negotiations,” Vance said.
US President Donald Trump
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Trump is under pressure to reach an accord that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for global supplies of oil and other commodities. He has previously expressed hope that a deal was close to ending the conflict, while also threatening to renew military strikes on Iran if it does not reach an agreement.
Asked whether Russia could take possession of Iran’s enriched uranium, Vance said: “That is not currently the plan of the United States government. The Iranians have not raised it.”
Vance’s comments came after Trump said earlier Tuesday that the United States may need to strike Iran again within days if no nuclear agreement is reached, adding that he had been only an hour away from deciding on an attack before postponing the operation.
“I was an hour away from making the decision to go today,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Trump said Iran’s leaders were “begging” to make a deal, but warned that a new U.S. attack could take place in the coming days if talks fail.
“Well, I mean, I’m saying two or three days, maybe Friday, Saturday, Sunday, something, maybe early next week, a limited period of time, because we can’t let them have a new nuclear weapon,” he said.
Trump’s remarks came a day after he said he had postponed planned strikes on Iran by “two or three days” at the request of Gulf leaders, while seeking an agreement before any renewed military action.
Trump prefers a deal to renewed fighting, though not at any price. For that reason, any delay in a strike is now seen by him as a necessary move, even if it projects weakness and confusion to the Iranians.
If Trump fails to reach an agreement with Iran, the repeated delays could also increase his legitimacy at home and abroad. In effect, Trump can present himself as the one seeking an agreement and trying to prevent war, while arguing that Iran continued pushing toward renewed fire.
In Israel, many still believe the chances of a strike are higher than the chances of successful negotiations. The Iranians are digging in and showing no flexibility in the talks, at least not outwardly, and a few more days are not expected to change that. They are not willing to give up the nuclear program, and Trump cannot settle for less.
One Israeli official said that even now, if Iran again rejects the U.S. president’s proposal, it is far from certain Trump will attack. “With Trump, nothing is certain,” he said.
Another Israeli official added, “With Trump, there is no logic, mainly because it is Trump. In Trump’s view, the delay actually projects strength, goodwill and perhaps another attempt to persuade the Iranians.”
Israel, meanwhile, is preparing for all possibilities and understands that, in the end, everything is in Trump’s hands. It is preparing for a possible resumption of U.S. fighting, while Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s departure Tuesday evening at the head of a delegation for a diplomatic visit to the Czech Republic may indicate that Israel understands an American strike will not happen immediately.