US Vice-President JD Vance has claimed that the United States is “very close” to reaching a peace deal with Iran, hours before American forces launched retaliatory strikes against the country. In an interview with CBS, taped early on Tuesday, Mr Vance said an agreement could “absolutely” be reached before the midterm elections.
“Right now, I feel that we are in a position to get a deal that is good for the United States economically and that really does deal with the Iranian nuclear program,” Mr Vance said. “Not just now, not just while Donald Trump is president, but for the long term, to where my kids can say when they’re adults: ‘Iran is not going to have a nuclear weapon.’ That’s the goal of the policy. And I think we’re very close to achieving that goal. But we [have] still got some wood to chop.”
Shortly after 5pm ET on Tuesday, US Central Command announced that American forces had begun launching “self-defence strikes” on Iran, in response to the downing of an Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. “The mission is a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression,” Centcom said in a social media post. Earlier, President Trump wrote on Truth Social that the US “must, of necessity, respond to the attack” but also claimed there was a “good chance” of signing a deal with Iran “in two or three days”.
Since the US and Israel launched a war against Iran in February, the conflict has triggered retaliatory strikes from Iran against US Gulf allies, a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, soaring energy costs worldwide and a fragile ceasefire. Over the past three and a half months, the Trump administration has repeatedly claimed that it is close to reaching a deal with Iran, while Mr Trump has accused Iran of attempting to stall and “outwait” him until the midterms.
Iran has acknowledged that discussions with the US are continuing, but no final agreement has been reached. The talks have been complicated by Israel’s recent strikes across Beirut, which triggered retaliatory strikes from Iran. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliamentary speaker and top negotiator, condemned the attacks, saying US bases and assets across the region had become “legitimate targets” following the strikes. “They are neither committed to a ceasefire nor believe in dialogue, and through the naval blockade and violation of agreements regarding Lebanon they showed that they only understand the language of power,” he said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has detailed Washington’s demands for a deal, including “severe and long-term limitations” on Iran’s nuclear programme. Mr Trump also signalled that the US would cooperate with Iran on destroying its uranium stockpile if an agreement were reached. “If we make a deal that now we’re friendly, we’ll all go together. It’ll be our equipment. We’ll take it out and destroy it,” he said. “Now, if we don’t make a deal, then we’re going to take them out militarily very harshly.”
