Baba UmarWashington DC — US Vice President JD Vance has repeated the Trump administration's nuclear warning to Iran, telling reporters at the White House that the US will never allow Tehran to acquire a nuclear weapon, which he claimed could spark a nuclear arms race.
"We want to keep the number of countries that have nuclear weapons small, and that's why Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon," Vance told a media briefing on Tuesday.
Vance stressed that a nuclear Iran would be the "first domino" in a dangerous arms race, claiming Gulf nations and others worldwide would seek their own nukes, undoing a major success of US foreign policy.
"It is not just that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon; it's what would happen if Iranians did get a nuclear weapon. A lot of nations across the Gulf would then want their own nuclear weapon. What has been a very bright spot of American foreign policy would disappear overnight," Vance said.
Nine countries currently possess nuclear weapons: Russia, US, China, France, UK, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea. Together, these nations hold an estimated global inventory of roughly 12,100 nuclear warheads, with Russia and US accounting for nearly 90 percent of the total, according to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
Vance's remarks come amid shaky US-Iran negotiations and 43-day truce following earlier war and a Trump administration decision to pause planned strikes.
The Iranian government is demanding that the US pay billions of dollars in reconstruction costs, fully withdraw its troops from the region, and permit its nuclear programme —demands that the US has described as non-starters.
US joined Israel in attacking Iran on February 28, with strikes quickly killing the longtime supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and much of the other top brass.
Tehran responded by asserting control over the Strait of Hormuz and launching missile and drone strikes on Gulf Arab states hosting US assets, disrupting regional energy flows.
Ahead of Vance's media briefing, US President Donald Trump offered a deadline of several days for resuming attacks if a deal was not agreed.
"I'm saying two or three days, maybe Friday, Saturday, Sunday, something, maybe early next week, a limited period of time," he told reporters at the White House.
Vance says Iran not an endless conflict
About the ongoing negotiations, Vance said talks with Iran are continuing and have made "a lot of progress", adding the Iranians themselves want a deal.
"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 that it's ultimately up to the Iranians whether they are willing to meet us," Vance said.
The US Vice President described Iran as "a complicated country" that is "fractured." He said even the Iranians themselves are "not quite clear in which direction they want to go."
"You have the leadership of the country, there is the supreme leader, and there are a lot of officials below the supreme leader that [have] some influence in negotiation. It is not sometimes totally clear what the negotiating position of the team is."
Vance also described Iran as a "proud civilisation" with "amazing people" and stressed that the US and Iran have an opportunity to reset their relations.
Asked if Russia will be receiving enriched uranium from Iran, Vance explicitly stated that Moscow taking possession of Tehran enriched uranium stockpiles "is not part of the US plan" and that "the Iranians have not raised the idea."
He also pushed back on the idea of endless conflict, saying neither Trump nor Tehran wants the US military strikes to restart.
Vance said talks have made a lot of progress, but warned, "eventually we'll either hit a deal or we won't."
Vance, who led a US delegation to Pakistan in April for talks that failed to produce a deal, said: "We're in a pretty good spot here — but there's an option B, and the option B is that we could restart the military campaign."
"We're locked and loaded. We don't want to go down that pathway, but the president is willing and able to go down that pathway if we have to."
