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JD Vance on the Iran Situation and Nuclear Threat

Wednesday, May 20, 2026
5 min read
JD Vance on the Iran Situation and Nuclear Threat

JD Vance, the Vice President, came out on Tuesday talking about the Iran situation. He said there’s been some good progress in the talks, sure. But then he immediately threw in a warning. Washington is "locked and loaded." Ready to start the war if they don't get some deal.

It came right after something President Trump said. He claimed he was within an hour of authorizing fresh strikes. Tehran only had "two or three days" to make a deal. That kind of immediacy, you can feel it.

Vance, who generally leans against the idea of starting a war with Iran, was leading the US delegation. They had been in Pakistan in April for talks, and nothing materialized then.

"A lot of good progress is being made," Vance said in a White House briefing. "But we’re just going to keep on working at it, and eventually we’ll either hit a deal or we won’t."

He brought up the option B, the alternative. "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," he admitted.

The implication was heavy.

"We’re locked and loaded," he stressed. "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."

Vance kept circling back to the nuclear issue. He made it clear that Iran simply cannot have a nuclear weapon. If they did, it would instantly trigger a global "nuclear arms race." It’s bad for everyone, he insisted.

"We just don’t want them (Iran) to have a nuclear weapon," he continued. "We have effectively degraded their conventional military capability. That’s why I went to Islamabad. Why spend twenty-two hours on a plane just to negotiate? It was to show some good faith. We are not going to have a deal that allows the Iranians to have a nuclear weapon."

Iran is a complicated mess, Vance admitted. He doesn't pretend to understand it. The country is fractured. People just aren't clear where they want to go.

He worried about the future. He didn't want his three kids to inherit something terrible. "As the father of three young kids, I don’t want them to inherit a world where twenty additional regimes, half of them very dangerous and very sympathetic to terrorists, have nuclear weapons," he said.

He felt the need to keep the nuclear count low. That’s why Iran can’t have one, layered on top of everything else they might be worried about.

Meanwhile, the pressure wasn't just coming from the US. Diplomatic channels were still moving. Both sides were trading proposals this week. Tehran put forward a 14-point framework. It asked for compensation, relief on sanctions affecting oil exports, and acknowledgement of control over the Strait of Hormuz.

The US responded by pushing for tighter restrictions on Iran’s nuclear stuff. They pushed for the handover of the bulk of the suspected 440-kg stockpile of 60% enriched uranium.

The ceasefire is still technically in place. But that doesn't mean the tension evaporated. Both sides are still accusing each other of breaking aGreements. Acting in bad faith. It just keeps simmering.

And then you have the Trump side. He revealed that Washington had been right on the edge of launching another military strike. He was "an hour away." But Gulf nations—Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE—stepped in. They urged Washington to just wait, to push for more talking instead of hitting the button.

"I was an hour away. We were all set to go… it would have been happening right now," Trump said.

It’s this constant push and pull. Talks, threats, and the fear of the next move. It’s all very messy.

Written by Gree News Team — Senior Editorial Board

Gree News Team covers international news and global affairs at Gree News. Our collective of senior editors is dedicated to providing independent, accurate, and responsible journalism for a global audience.

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