Challenging Vance, Trump declares denying Iran nukes ‘number one goal’

As memorandum of understanding with Iran nears end, President Trump rebuts recent comments by Vice President Vance which set low energy prices as a higher priority than blocking Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

President Donald Trump on Monday appeared to subtly rebuke Vice President JD Vance’s recent description of the administration’s priorities in the Iran war, declaring that preventing Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon remains Washington’s foremost objective.

“The number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday afternoon.

The wording stood in notable contrast to comments Vance made during a Fox News interview Thursday, when he described keeping energy costs down as the administration’s first priority in the conflict and preventing an Iranian nuclear weapon as its second.

“I know that oil is down today and it’s way down from the highs in the early days of the conflict,” Vance said. “That’s goal number one, keep oil and gas cheap for Americans all over our country.”

“And then obviously goal number two is ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon,” he added.

Vance said he believed the administration was succeeding on both fronts, while acknowledging the uncertainty surrounding Tehran’s actions.

“I feel confident we’re accomplishing both of those goals but it’s inherently an unpredictable thing because the Iranians themselves are unpredictable and they sometimes don’t honor the commitments they’ve made to us,” he said.

Trump’s Monday post did not mention Vance or explicitly address his remarks.

But the president’s description of preventing an Iranian nuclear weapon as “the number one Goal” and something that “always will be” the top objective appeared to restore the nuclear issue to the position Trump has consistently assigned it throughout the confrontation with Tehran.

The clarification comes at a particularly sensitive moment, as the 60-day window established under the June US-Iran memorandum expired Monday without a comprehensive agreement.

The framework was intended to establish a path toward ending the conflict, reopening the Strait of Hormuz and negotiating a longer-term agreement addressing Iran’s nuclear activities.

Instead, negotiations have remained stalled amid disagreements over the strait, sanctions, Iranian oil exports and the terms of a future nuclear settlement.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that Tehran had not yet decided whether to resume negotiations with Washington.

Before the latest round of fighting, Iran had accumulated hundreds of kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% purity, well above levels normally required for civilian nuclear power and a relatively short technical step from weapons-grade material.

The fate of that stockpile has remained one of the central unresolved questions following US and Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear installations.

Trump has repeatedly insisted that any agreement must permanently prevent Iran from developing a bomb.

Vance’s comments last week came amid growing domestic pressure over gasoline prices resulting from the conflict.

Disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas trade passed before the war, have sharply tightened energy supplies.

US gasoline prices have risen substantially since the conflict began, creating an increasingly important political issue ahead of the midterm elections.

Trump acknowledged Friday that Americans were paying more at the pump but defended the cost of confronting Iran, saying the public should be prepared to tolerate temporarily higher prices rather than allow Tehran to threaten US interests.

The president has also argued that resolving the confrontation and restoring normal shipping through Hormuz will ultimately bring energy prices back down.

Traffic through the strait has again slowed dramatically as negotiations have faltered. Shipping data showed only five commodity vessels passing through on Saturday and none on Sunday, compared with far higher traffic before the conflict.

Oil prices rose Monday amid the diplomatic stalemate, with Brent crude trading around $89 a barrel.

The Trump administration is simultaneously preparing additional economic measures against Tehran, including efforts to choke off Iranian oil revenue and target sanctions-evasion networks involving Chinese refiners, financial intermediaries and vessels operating in Iran’s shadow fleet.