Vice President JD Vance has claimed that the United States is “not at war with Iran,” but instead at war with the country’s nuclear program.
“We’re not at war with Iran. We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program,” Vance told NBC News’s Kristen Welker while appearing Sunday on “Meet the Press.”
Vance’s comment came after Trump announced Saturday that the U.S. struck three nuclear facilities in Iran, subsequently entering the conflict between Israel and Iran overnight.
“What we did is we destroyed the Iranian nuclear program. I think we set that program back substantially, and we did it without endangering the lives of the American pilots,” Vance continued. “That’s an incredible thing, and I think we all should be proud — whatever our politics, we should be proud of what these guys accomplished. A very, very high-impact mission under a lot of pressure.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Welker asked Vance how the United States will respond if Iran retaliates against the U.S., as it has been threatening to do so.
Noting that it will ultimately be the “president’s decision,” Vance explained that “what we said to the Iranians is 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.”
Watch a clip from Vance’s appearance on “Meet the Press” below.
