Vice President JD Vance stated on Sunday that the United States is not engaged in a war against Iran, but rather against “Iran’s nuclear program,” following recent U.S. military actions targeting three of the nation’s nuclear facilities.
This clarification accompanied remarks from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who declared that Iran’s “nuclear ambitions have been obliterated,” referring to the strikes carried out on installations in Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan under the Trump administration.
During an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Vance reinforced that the U.S. is “not at war with Iran.”
“We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program,” he emphasized.
In response to a question from NBC News’ Kristen Welker regarding potential retaliation by Iran, Vance reiterated the U.S. stance: “We do not want war with Iran, we actually want peace, but we want peace in the context of them not having a nuclear weapons program, and that’s exactly what the president accomplished last night.”
In a response, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that Iran would consider all options to protect itself following the American strikes.
The vice president did not provide details on whether the targeted nuclear sites have retained any operational capabilities following the strikes.
“I’m not going to get into sensitive intelligence about what we’ve seen on the ground there in Iran, but we’ve seen a lot, and I feel very confident that we’ve substantially delayed their development of a nuclear weapon, and that was the goal of this attack,” Vance remarked.
This is breaking news and will be updated.
