The Trump administration continued to signal its desire for negotiations with Tehran after bombing Iran’s key nuclear facilities.
“The Iranians are clearly not very good at war,” he added. “Perhaps they should follow President Trump’s lead and give peace a chance. If they’re serious about it, I guarantee you the president of the United States is too.”
While the U.S. dropped several “bunker buster” bombs on the heavily fortified enrichment site at Fordow, it’s not clear yet how much damage it sustained underground and if it was indeed destroyed. Vance later added that he’s confident the U.S. “substantially delayed” Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon.
On Saturday night, Trump warned Iran that more U.S. attacks would follow if Iran didn’t pursue peace. Vance suggested on Sunday that the country had reached out to administration officials through backchannels.
The vice president also accused Iran of stonewalling during earlier rounds of negotiations over the nuclear program, prompting the U.S. to launch its airstrikes.
But Iran’s foreign minister signaled it was the U.S. and its allies that closed the door on diplomacy.
Vance also echoed other administration officials in saying the U.S. doesn’t seek regime change, while clarifying that the U.S. isn’t at war with Iran but instead is at war with its nuclear program.
When asked if he could rule out American ground troops eventually being deployed, Vance replied that the U.S. has no interest in a protracted conflict.
“We have no interest in boots on the ground,” he added. “The president has actually been one of the fiercest critics of 25 years of failed foreign policy in the Middle East, which is why he did what he did: a very precise, a very surgical strike tailored to an American national interest. And that national interest is Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
That comes as some of Trump’s staunchest supporters have express deep concerns about the U.S. fighting another war in the Middle East.
Vance, who served in Iraq during his time in the Marine Corps, acknowledged those concerns and said he can empathize with Americans who feel that way.
“But the difference is that back then we had dumb presidents, and now we have a president who actually knows how to accomplish America’s national security objectives,” he explained. “So this is not going to be some long, drawn-out thing. We’ve got in. We’ve done the job of setting their nuclear program back. We’re going to now work to permanently dismantle that nuclear program over the coming years. And that is what the president has set out to do.”
