Vice President JD Vance called in to FNC’s “Big Weekend Show” on Sunday afternoon to give some details about the administration’s deal with Iran:
Three things that are important for the American people to appreciate what this deal does for all of us as Americans.
– Number one, the immediate opening of the Strait of Hormuz and the lifting of the naval blockade with Iran along with it.
– The number two thing: Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, and not pursue a nuclear weapon, but procure and try to buy a nuclear weapon as well. That’s built into this agreement.
– And the third thing: This only happens, to be clear, if Iran delivers on their promise — so there is an approach where we verify and Iran benefits as long as Iran meets their end of the obligation. But if the Iranians comply with this deal for the next 50 years, it’s going to end the war, it’s going to make the Middle East a lot more investible, and create a lot of prosperity and lower energy for the American people. This region has been a basket case for my entire life and longer than that. And what the president has really set us to do is to certainly eliminate the nuclear threat of Iran. That is done.
But now, possibly, to build to a new era of Middle East prosperity and success, where it is not a region of the world where the United States has to worry about so much, but frankly, we can generate a lot of prosperity for the American people out of that region. That’s a very big win, and it all happened because the president stuck with it.
HOST: Mr. Vice President, congratulations. It’s a great day, with President Trump’s birthday, no less. I wanted to ask you, Mr. Vice President, what your message is to the American people who have hung in there amid the high gas prices, and the president posting on Truth Social, “Fire up your engines. Let the oil flow.” A lot of Americans are excited and relieved to see that. We know it will not happen all at once. But what is your message to the American people when their primary concern is the price at the pump?
VANCE: My primary message to the American people is “thank you,” because of your patience, we solved a problem that has plagued this country for well before I was born, which is a terrorist-supporting Iran pursuing a nuclear weapon.
We’re now in a place where we can say with confidence they’re not going to get a nuclear weapon. And if they comply with the broader elements of this deal, think about this: As you heard about the Middle East as Americans, you would hear about war. And what the president has done is create the space to transform the region in cooperation, and hopefully a new era with Iranians.
We’re going to verify and ensure they’re meeting their end of the bargain, but this is a great thing for the American people. I know that they suffered from high gas prices. The president has certainly been very concerned about that fact. What we’re going to be able to do is drive down the cost of energy, not just now but in the long term, and create a real engine of prosperity in the Middle East, where Americans benefit from the lower energy prices and lower gas prices, and we don’t have the same risk for the last generation. That is big wins for the American people.
I know this has been a hard time with a lot of Americans, but we achieved something great for them.
HOST: I think Trey Yingst has a question for you.
TREY YINGST: Mr. Vice President, Trey Yingst in Tel Aviv. I want to ask you behind the scenes. We saw this announcement by the Iranians that they were planning to strike Israel after Israeli strikes targeting the Lebanese capital of Beirut, going after Hezbollah. Ultimately, this agreement was reached, a cease-fire on all fronts including Lebanon. Can you take us behind the scenes of what the moment was like leading up to the deal being signed?
VANCE: You’re exactly right. After the Israelis struck Beirut, we were very worried, and we saw a lot of evidence Iranians were going to launch a large number of missiles at the Israelis.
With our communication over the course of getting to this signed peace deal, they assured us they were not going to respond to the Israelis and they were going to cite the agreement to get to peace.
You always have to verify these things, and we know there are a lot of people in the Middle East who do not want to make this deal happen. There is the Hezbollah terrorist organization. Some elements of the organization are still threatening the Israelis. You have a number of different pieces moving. And, you know, the cease-fires take a little bit of time to take root.
People are very good at fighting each other. They haven’t learned how to make peace. Under the president’s leadership, we turned over a new leaf. We’re going to keep on working at it. I’m not going to say everybody’s going to sing kumbaya. It’s going to take a little bit of time to learn the ways of peace, and we took a major step today.
HOST: Mr. Vice President, we understand there will be a signing ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, later this week. Will you attend the ceremony?
VANCE: We’re figuring out the logistics on who will attend the signing ceremony. I certainly plan to be there, but it’s possible the president himself could be there.
We will figure out what we know. We have a lot of work to do, but a very big win for the American people tonight. We will keep on working and driving energy prices down, and making sure that region becomes less of a basket case.
And finally, most important, we celebrate the fact that I think we can say with confidence Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. We have a lot of work to do, but a big win tonight. Thank you.
