Giving an update on Iran, JD Vance says the US has a “simple proposition” and there are “two paths to go down”.
“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” he says, warning of the associated dangers and touting the US’s “degradation” of Iran’s military capabilities.
He says Iran having a nuclear weapon would lead to other nations “scrambling” to get their own, setting off a “nuclear arms race” that would “make us all much less safe”.
“Iran would really be the first domino in what would set off a nuclear arms race all over the world,” he says.
He says the US is “willing to cut a deal so long as the Iranians are willing to meet us on that core issue of never having a nuclear weapon”. (This is confusing because, as you will be aware, Trump has claimed several times in recent weeks that Iran had already agreed to this).
He says that the US is negotiating in “good faith” and he thinks a deal is possible.
Option B, Vance goes on, is to restart the military campaign “to continue to prosecute the case, to continue to try to achieve America’s objectives.”
“That’s not what the president wants and I don’t think that’s what the Iranians want either,” he says.
He says there’s an opportunity to reset the Washington-Tehran relationship, “but it takes two to tango”.
We are not going to have a deal that allows the Iranians to have a nuclear weapon, so as the president just told me, we are locked and loaded. We don’t want to go down that pathway but the president is willing and able to if we have to.
And asked about the length of the conflict, which Trump said would last six weeks but has now passed 11 weeks and hasn’t ended yet, Vance contends that the “active period of conflict” lasted around five weeks, and says that a “big chunk” of the 11 weeks has been under a ceasefire.
This is not a forever war, we’re going to take care of business and come home.
The ever-observant US vice-president also acknowledged that Americans have seen prices at the pump go up as a result of the war.
“I feel quite confident after we’ve taken care of business in the Middle East those prices are going to come down,” he says.
Asked if Russia could take possession of Iran’s enriched uranium, Vance told reporters:
That is not currently the plan of the United States government. The Iranians have not raised it.
Vance has also spent some time stating that he feels the Iranians want to make deal, but added:
But I will not say with confidence that we’re going to reach a deal until we’re actually signing a negotiated settlement here. And I think it’s ultimately up to the Iranians if they’re willing to meet us [halfway].
Vance elaborated on the US’s goal in the talks, adding:
We want to see not just the commitment [from Iran] to not have a nuclear weapon, but the commitment to work with us on a process to ensure that … years down the road that the Iranians are not rebuilding that nuclear capability.
Giving an update on Iran, JD Vance says the US has a “simple proposition” and there are “two paths to go down”.
“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” he says, warning of the associated dangers and touting the US’s “degradation” of Iran’s military capabilities.
He says Iran having a nuclear weapon would lead to other nations “scrambling” to get their own, setting off a “nuclear arms race” that would “make us all much less safe”.
“Iran would really be the first domino in what would set off a nuclear arms race all over the world,” he says.
He says the US is “willing to cut a deal so long as the Iranians are willing to meet us on that core issue of never having a nuclear weapon”. (This is confusing because, as you will be aware, Trump has claimed several times in recent weeks that Iran had already agreed to this).
He says that the US is negotiating in “good faith” and he thinks a deal is possible.
Option B, Vance goes on, is to restart the military campaign “to continue to prosecute the case, to continue to try to achieve America’s objectives.”
“That’s not what the president wants and I don’t think that’s what the Iranians want either,” he says.
He says there’s an opportunity to reset the Washington-Tehran relationship, “but it takes two to tango”.
We are not going to have a deal that allows the Iranians to have a nuclear weapon, so as the president just told me, we are locked and loaded. We don’t want to go down that pathway but the president is willing and able to if we have to.
While we wait for Vance, US secretary of state Marco Rubio and UN secretary-general António Guterres discussed US efforts to stop Iran from placing mines and imposing tolls in the strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, including a UN Security Council resolution on the issue.
“The Secretary emphasized the overwhelming support of a broad base of UN members for these efforts,” US state department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement.
Rubio also championed USDA undersecretary Luke Lindberg’s qualifications to lead the UN World Food Program, he said.
US vice-president JD Vance is due to hold the White House news briefing shortly. I’ll be watching and will bring you any key lines if he’s asked about the war on Iran here.
-
US president Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the United States may need to hit Iran again and he was only an hour away from deciding on a strike before he postponed the attack. “I was an hour away from making the decision to go today,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
-
Trump told reporters he is giving Iran until the weekend to make a deal to end the war. He said he was within an hour of deciding to resume bombing the Middle Eastern country but that his negotiators had reported progress in talks.
-
Iran’s army has warned it would “open new fronts” against the US if it resumes attacks on the country amid reports that Donald Trump is weighing up restarting military operations in Iran amid an impasse in negotiations. “If the enemy is foolish enough to fall into the Zionist trap again and launches new aggression against our beloved Iran, we will open new fronts against it, with new equipment and new methods,” army spokesperson Mohammad Akraminia said, according to Iran’s ISNA news agency.
-
The United States has imposed new sanctions on Iran, a posting on the US Treasury department’s website showed on Tuesday. The list published includes 12 new individuals, a host of companies and several shipping vessels.
-
Top Nato commander Alexus Grynkewich said on Tuesday that a potential mission of the military alliance in the strait of Hormuz would be a political decision. “The conditions under which Nato would consider operating in the strait of Hormuz are ultimately a political decision,” Grynkewich said, speaking in Brussels where he met with military chiefs from Nato countries.
-
In an update carried by the country’s National News Agency, the Lebanese health ministry said since 2 March Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,042 people and injured 9,301 others. As a reminder, the renewed Israeli assault on Lebanon was launched as a response to Hezbollah firing missiles at Israel on 2 March after the US-Israeli bombing of Iran in late February.
-
British Airways (BA) has delayed resuming flights to Dubai, Doha and Tel Aviv by a month to 1 August as departures continue to be disrupted by the joint Israeli and US war on Iran. “Due to the ongoing situation in the Middle East, we have made further changes to our flying schedule to provide greater clarity for our customers,” a spokesperson for British Airways told the Reuters news agency when approached for comment.
-
The United Arab Emirates said on Tuesday that the drones that targeted its nuclear plant last week came from Iraq – from where Iranian-backed groups have launched several attacks since the Middle East war began. “As part of the ongoing investigation into the blatant attack on the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant on May 17, 2026, technical tracking and monitoring confirmed that the three drones… all originated from Iraqi territory,” the Emirati defence ministry said.
-
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, has revealed he was informed that the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague requested an arrest warrant against him. “Issuing arrest warrants against the prime minister, the defense minister and the finance minister is a declaration of war – and in the face of a declaration of war, we will respond in kind,” Smotrich said, according to comments carried in Israeli newspaper Hareetz.
-
Gaza’s health ministry said in its latest update that two people were killed and three others injured in Israeli attacks across the territory over the past day despite the supposed ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. One other person – who was already injured from an Israeli attack – was pronounced dead over the same period, the ministry added.
A drone strike that cut off external power to a nuclear reactor in the United Arab Emirates this week has revived concerns over the safety of nuclear plants during wartime.
Reactor no 3 at the Barakah nuclear plant lost off-site power, which is critical for its own functioning, for about 24 hours after the attack on Sunday, forcing it to rely on emergency diesel generators.
Iran, or one of its regional proxies, is likely to have been behind the strike. One of three drones got through from the west, causing a fire close to a four-reactor plant that supplies the UAE with quarter of its electricity.
The UAE said the strike hit an electrical generator “outside the inner perimeter”, raising fears it could have hit the switch yard which lies just beyond a wall around the site’s reactors.
It is the first time a fully operating nuclear power plant has had to rely on backup generators as a result of a military attack, at a time when reactors in Ukraine and Iran are also threatened by war.
Top Nato commander Alexus Grynkewich said on Tuesday that a potential mission of the military alliance in the strait of Hormuz would be a political decision.
“The conditions under which Nato would consider operating in the strait of Hormuz are ultimately a political decision,” Grynkewich said, speaking in Brussels where he met with military chiefs from Nato countries.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
