JD Vance: US wants a verifiable nuclear commitment from the Islamic Republic

US Vice President JD Vance said Washington is seeking a "long-term and verifiable" commitment from the Islamic Republic not to rebuild its nuclear programme. At a CBS News question-and-answer session in Flat Rock, Michigan, moderated by Tony Dokoupil, he defended the strategy of Donald Trump's administration in the war with the Islamic Republic.

Vance said the United States has destroyed the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme and that this was the main goal of Trump's operation. According to him, the key question now is whether the Islamic Republic can rebuild its nuclear arsenal or enrichment capacity in another five years; and for that reason the war must continue until such a guarantee is reached. Asked why the United States has not achieved a decisive victory, he said the United States has won decisively in some respects, but the Islamic Republic's reactions cannot be wholly ignored.

The Strait of Hormuz and the price of petrol

In the same session the US vice president blamed the Islamic Republic's disruption of commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz for higher fuel prices, and said that without the US Navy's presence prices would be three times higher. He called the reduction in refining capacity under Joe Biden's administration the "biggest reason" for high petrol prices in the United States. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had also said in Athens on 7 October that the Islamic Republic has lost full control of the strait.

Background

The day before, Vance had also implied a difference of opinion with Trump over the war with the Islamic Republic, adding that the final decision rests with the president. On 15 October, at a telephone campaign rally, Trump said the United States has "now" taken nuclear weapons away from the Islamic Republic. The Islamic Republic has always denied trying to build nuclear weapons; satellite images on 7 October showed that the entrances to the tunnels of Pickaxe Mountain near Natanz, where centrifuges are said to have been moved, remain blocked.

JD Vance: the war must continue until a verifiable guarantee is obtained that the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme will not be rebuilt.