JAKARTA - Vice President JD Vance said on Sunday the United States was not at war with Iran but at war with its nuclear program, adding the program had been postponed for a very long time due to an American attack ordered by President Donald Trump.
President Trump said he had "floated" Iran's main nuclear site in an attack on Saturday night with a massive bunker-destroying bomb, joining Israeli attacks on rivals in the Middle East in an escalation of the region's significant new conflict.
"We are not at war with Iran. We are at war with Iran's nuclear program," Vice President Vance said in an interview at the "Meet the Press with Kristen Welker" event on NBC.
"I think we have really postponed their program for a very long time. I think it will take years before Iran is capable of developing nuclear weapons," he added.
Vice President Vance accused Iran of not negotiating in good faith, which he said was a catalyst for the US attack. Uncle Sam's country is known to have held diplomatic talks with Iran about Tehran's nuclear program.
Tehran and Washington are known to be working to restore the nuclear deal (JCPOA) which was abandoned by the first term of President Trump's administration in 2018. After five rounds of negotiations, the sixth round of US-Iran negotiations was originally held on June 15 in Oman.
Tehran vowed to respond to the US attack, while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "very worried" by the US bombing of Iran's nuclear site.
"We don't want a regime change," said Vice President Vance.
"We don't want to extend this. We want to end the nuclear program, and then we want to talk to Iran about a long-term settlement here," he explained.
Vice President Vance said President Trump made the final decision to attack Iran just before the attack took place, with Washington having received several "indirect" messages from Tehran since the attack.
According to Vice President Vance, Uncle Sam's country is "not interested in deploying troops on land."
Earlier, President Trump said on Friday he would decide in the next two weeks about the US's direct involvement in the Israeli-Iran war that began with Israel's attack on Iran on June 13.
The war has raised concerns in areas that have been nervous since the start of Israel's war in Gaza in October 2023.
The US ally, Israel, is the only country in the Middle East that is widely believed to have nuclear weapons, saying they attacked Iran to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.
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On the other hand, Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while Israel is not.
Many US Democratic lawmakers say President Trump's actions are unconstitutional and have the authority to declare war on foreign countries in the US Congress.
Vice President Vance responded to the criticism, saying President Trump had "clear authority to act to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."
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