US, Iran have made progress toward negotiated settlement, says Vance

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - WASHINGTON — US Vice President JD Vance said Monday that Washington has made “progress” in talks with Iran, saying he and President Donald Trump feel “pretty good” about reaching a negotiated settlement.

“I actually just spoke with the president of the United States about an hour ago about this,” Vance told reporters. “Look, the president and I both feel pretty good about the prospects for potentially coming to a negotiated settlement. We’re going to keep on working at it.”

“The Iranians are always a little unpredictable, and as the president always says, he retains kinetic options. He retains non-kinetic options, but we’ve certainly made some progress. We’ll see if we can make some more,” he said.

Vance however said there had been “a number of good conversations with the Iranians.”

“We’ve certainly made some progress. We’ll see if we can make some more.”

Asked whether Iran had been given a deadline before strikes resume, Vance said: “No, we haven’t set deadlines.”

“Having destroyed their nuclear program, we want to make sure they don’t rebuild it or try to rebuild it. That’s what matters most to the United States,” he said.

“We do think that there is a pathway there, but it really does require a firm commitment and a verifiable commitment that they don’t rebuild that nuclear program,” he added.

Vance's remarks came hours after Trump said at the reopening of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington that Iran wants to make a deal to end the conflict, now in its ninth month.

“They want to make a deal, and that could happen,” Trump said, adding that Iran had asked Washington to stop targeting its leaders, “and we will.”

Asked by reporters if he was considering striking Iran after the midterms, Trump replied “no.”

Trump in recent weeks had hinted about renewing attacks on Iran after the US midterm elections on Tuesday.

Iranian negotiators were in Doha on Sunday for a third consecutive day of talks with Qatari mediators aimed at pushing for a deal to end the war. Trump said on Monday he believed Iran wanted to make a deal and that such an agreement “could happen.”

Trump stressed his bottom-line demand that Iran not possess a nuclear weapon.

“We’re not going to allow Iran ever to have a nuclear weapon, and they understand that. They’ve understood that and they’ve said it even recently,” Trump said.

“If we allowed Iran to have a nuclear weapon, this country could never function in the same way. The whole world would be a different place,” he said.

He insisted that the operation was not actually a war because “we’ve done very little fighting” recently after sweeping strikes months ago in which some Iranian leaders were killed.

Tensions in the Middle East have remained high since the US and Israel launched attacks against Iran on Feb. 28, triggering Iranian retaliation across the region.

Despite subsequent diplomatic efforts and a memorandum signed by Washington and Tehran in June, tensions have persisted over security arrangements and navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.