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U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday that talks between the United States and Iran are going well in Doha but declined to commit to not resuming full-scale military action, saying the decision rests with Tehran.
"I can't commit to anything, because obviously it depends on what the Iranians are ultimately going to do," Vance told reporters after speaking to Marines at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia.
"What I can commit to is the president's not going to send our military back in unless he has to, unless there's a clearly defined purpose for it," he noted.
Vance outlined a set of conditions that could lead the U.S. to restart military action against Iran.
"If we've got to do more, of course, that's kind of up to the Iranians. If they try to rebuild their nuclear program, if they try to start shooting at commercial vessels again, that's going to change our calculus," he said.
"But right now, what the president has said is, 'Go and make a deal, go and negotiate in good faith,' and that's what he's empowered us to do."
He repeated the conditions in a follow-up response to reporters, saying: "If they try to rebuild that nuclear program, if they refuse to let inspections in, if they resume shooting at commercial vessels, which they have stopped for a few days, then obviously the president still has a lot of options on the table."
Vance's comments appeared to indicate that discussions specifically addressing Iran's nuclear program have not yet started.
"Obviously, we're worried about the nuclear issue, we're going to start talking about that," he said, adding, "Right now, the talks are going well, it's still pretty early, but talks are going well."
Asked about the status of the Doha talks, Vance described the current phase as technical in nature.
"Right now, the technical negotiators are sitting down with the Iranians, with the Qataris, and with others in Doha, talking about some of the details here, making sure commercial traffic really does, it's already started in an amazing direction," he said.
"We've got now oil at $68, we've got gas prices starting to come down, but really just ensuring that we continue to make the progress on that, and that's what they're focused on," Vance added.
Asked about competing factions within the Iranian government, Vance said there are two distinct camps, saying, "Any Iranian system, like a lot of places, you've got people who actually recognize the last 47 years of their government has been a mistake, and that they need to change their relationship with the United States, with Europe, with the Gulf Arab countries."
"And then you've got a few people who are still kind of attached to the old ways. We think we see a lot of momentum for the people who are trying to turn over a new leaf. We're obviously going to give the negotiations as much of a chance to succeed as possible," he concluded.
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