JD Vance claims US holds all the cards in Iran and will win ‘either way’ | JD Vance
J.D. Vance said Friday that the United States will win “either way” in negotiations with Iran, pointing to what he called the destruction of Iran’s nuclear program and its shrinking as a country.
“It would be great if we get the final deal done,” the US vice president told HBO’s Bill Maher. “If we don’t get the final deal, their nuclear program will still be destroyed. They’re still much weaker as a country, so my stance is that America will win either way.”
Vance said the increased flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz was “a sign that something real is happening.”
But he acknowledged that the ceasefire agreement, made under a 60-day memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Donald Trump and Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian, “was always going to be a little complicated when you’re dealing with the Iranians.”
Vance’s appearance on the politically-tinged comedy talk show Real Time came hours before news broke that a tanker had been hit by a shell in the strait, marking the worst escalation of attacks between the United States and Iran since signing the interim peace deal.
Washington said it struck Iranian targets overnight, while Iran responded by striking targets affiliated with US forces on Saturday. The attack on a tanker on Saturday followed an attack on a cargo ship on Thursday, which triggered clashes.
Vance’s comments came as he was promoting his new memoir, Community: Finding My Way Back to Faith, but most of the episode dealt with foreign and domestic policy issues.
Vance stated that his talks with an Iranian delegation in Lucerne, Switzerland, were successful because oil fell to $73 per barrel and Iran’s nuclear program was “functionally destroyed,” pointing to the country’s ability to enrich uranium.
Critics of the MoU and ongoing negotiations say the Trump administration is handling the talks with a weak hand because Iran still has a stockpile of 60% enriched uranium, which may be inaccessible but will still remain in the country.
While the United States and Iran reach a comprehensive agreement, reducing Iran’s stockpiles or transferring them abroad remains a viable option, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director-general Rafael Grossi said on Friday.
When pressed by Maher about whether Iran’s nuclear program had been destroyed, Vance replied: “What part of it hasn’t been destroyed? What you have to destroy is their ability to enrich destroyed uranium.”
He extended an olive branch to Iran. “If they are willing to give up their nuclear weapons ambitions in the long term, then the United States is ready to fundamentally transform our relationship with this country,” he said.
“If they’re willing to change, we’re willing to change; if they’re not willing to change, we still basically have all the cards, and I think that’s a good place to go.”
Vance’s media appearance came two days after he visited the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in California; here he appeared defending Nixon, who was praised by Republicans for negotiating groundbreaking nuclear arms control agreements with the Soviet Union, over the Watergate burglary scandal that ended his presidency.
“I think his historical legacy is experiencing a bit of a renaissance — but I think he deserves it,” Vance said of Nixon, who opened diplomatic relations with communist China and was affiliated with a Republican party affiliated with working-class Americans. “If Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like 12-hour news. Like, the idea that this could topple a presidency is crazy.”
On Real Time, Vance sidestepped Maher’s effort to acknowledge that the administration’s immigration enforcement policies have gone too far. “You can’t do a law enforcement operation like this without having some situation recorded that way,” Vance said. “I don’t think there’s an easy way to do this.”
