Vance: If Iran rebuilds nuclear program, military force is an option

The vice president said U.S. intelligence believes Iran is farther from obtaining a nuclear weapon than ever before.

By World Israel News Staff

Vice President JD Vance said the United States retains military options should Iran attempt to rebuild its nuclear program or continue supporting armed proxy groups throughout the Middle East, despite ongoing diplomatic negotiations.

Vance made the remarks during a speech at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where he addressed service members involved in Operation Epic Fury and praised the U.S. military’s performance during the recent conflict with Iran.

The vice president said the military operation had significantly weakened Iran’s ability to pursue a nuclear weapon and had strengthened the United States’ negotiating position in subsequent talks with Tehran.

“If the Iranians try to rebuild the nuclear program, the president’s got options. If the Iranians try to threaten their neighbors or fund terrorism, we’ve got options,” Vance said.

Vance’s comments suggested the administration views the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Iran as contingent on Tehran refraining from restoring its nuclear capabilities or escalating regional aggression.

“If you look at what our own intelligence says about their nuclear program, they are farther away from developing a nuclear bomb than they have ever been since basically the last 20 or 30 years,” he said.

The vice president also praised American service members for carrying out the administration’s military objectives during the campaign.

“What the president asks you to accomplish is to destroy the defense industrial base of that country, so that if they ever decided to rebuild their military, or if they ever decided to rebuild that nuclear program, they would be harmless to do it. You did that exactly as well,” he said.

Vance told the audience that President Donald Trump is “negotiating from a position of strength because of you,” arguing that the success of the military operation has given Washington greater leverage in ongoing discussions with Tehran.

Although the Trump administration has emphasized diplomacy following the conflict, Vance stressed that military action remains available if Iran resumes activities viewed as threatening regional stability.

“We dropped some bombs a couple of days ago….because the Iranians were shooting at commercial ships,” Vance said.

“We applied some leverage, and we’ve had free commercial transit for the last three days,” he added.