In an interview on “The Michael Knowles Show,” Vice President J.D. Vance explains President Donald Trump’s approach to negotiating peace with the Iranians.

MICHAEL KNOWLES, HOST: Speaking of international affairs, I understand there’s some conflict going on somewhere in the Middle East. The reason that we couldn’t do this interview a couple weeks ago. You’re obviously in this 27 hours a day. VICE PRESIDENT J.D. VANCE: Correct. KNOWLES: By my understanding, tell me if I have this wrong. By my understanding, the president said on Monday, we might get peace talks Tuesday. Iran immediately comes out and says, we have not scheduled peace talks Tuesday. Then we’re in a ceasefire, but we keep shooting at each other. Then the Iranians say, we can’t get a deal because Israel keeps firing on Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. So then Israel and Lebanon get a deal, a peace deal. But Hezbollah, which works for Iran, says we’re not going to abide by the deal. Then the Strait of Hormuz is open, but some people say it’s closed. It’s not told, but then the Iranians say there are tolls, along with Oman, which we didn’t even bring up Oman yet. I guess it seems to me, in my layman’s understanding, the structural issues preventing peace are all the same as they’ve been for about 10,000 years. Now, as we’re looking at Schrodinger, Strait of Hormuz, or the whole conflict generally, what structurally needs to change to bring about peace? Is there any timeline you foresee on that happening, like a lasting peace? And crucially, how significant will that be for not just the midterms, but 2028? VANCE: Well, first of all, I do think that things are much different than they were even a few months ago. I’m not saying they’re going to, you know, I can’t predict, of course, the future. So one, there are talks, there were scheduled talks, really technical talks building on the negotiation that we’ve already had. Those are definitely happening tomorrow. One of the things I find just fascinating and frustrating about the Iranians is they’ll say, no, no, no, there aren’t peace talks ongoing, but there are technical talks between the United States and Iran about the peace deal. It’s like, okay, so it’s a Persian negotiating tactic and a rhetorical device that I don’t understand, but that is the way that the Iranians have done this. One of the things that is underappreciated about the president’s approach to this whole region of the world is he likes to reshuffle the deck and then see where the leverage points are, where the pressure points are, and see where we can make progress. And that’s really where we are right now. Things have changed a lot. The Iranian military is much weaker, the Iranian economy is much weaker. You know, Lebanon and Israel are talking to each other directly in a way that they weren’t a few months ago. They both are sort of broadly aligned. And, you know, you can even make an argument that if you harmonize the Lebanon-Israel peace deal with the MOU signed between the United States and Iran, what both of those documents fundamentally say is that Lebanon’s territorial integrity will be respected. Okay? So things have definitely changed. I think the question is whether that change is durable, and I don’t know when this will air, probably tomorrow. Okay? So I think what the president has said is, let’s let this play out. There are a few things that we want. We want durable commitments that are verifiable and backed up by inspections that Iran will denuclearize their entire country. Okay? We’re going to see how we get there. Number two, we want to see what kind of an arrangement actually exists in the Middle East between not just Iran and the United States, but the GCC, Israel, Lebanon. We’re going to play that situation out. And then on the Strait of Hormuz, I mean, I think you actually said it well, which is that the Strait is open in the sense that to oil traffic, we’re seeing more oil come out of the Strait of Hormuz. And some days, actually, more oil coming out of the Strait than came out before the war even started. So there’s this element of the, you know, where the world oil economy is kind of getting back into gear. That’s going to take a little bit of time, but you’ve already seen the prices come way down. Now, what the cynics will say as well, if you look at the number of ships that are trafficking, that’s actually down from the pre-war start. But they’re mostly talking about cargo ships and other vessels. At least so far, what we’ve seen is the oil traffic has reached its pre-war height. So I think what the president has told us to do is use this MOU to sort of refill the world’s oil economy, to refill some stocks, and then to see where the hand is. And, you know, as I’ve said this repeatedly, if the Iranians are willing to make the commitments that we would like them to make, and are willing to back those up with verifiable milestones, then we are going to change our relationship with Iran. And if they don’t do that, then nothing has really changed, except for what we’ve already accomplished from the military campaign, which is a lot. So we kind of have two options here. We have the option of pursuing a long-term deal with the Iranians, but that requires a significant change in their behavior. We have the option of banking our wins, and then, of course, doing things on top of that if the president feels that we have to. And I think both of those options are very much in play, and the president’s going to let this play out. But what’s happening right now is he’s letting those options play out in an environment where there is significantly less pressure on the world energy economy. And this is my biggest frustration with right-wing critics of what we’ve done over the last few months in Iran, is that they don’t realize how completely they were losing the political argument because of what was happening to world energy markets. So what the president of the United States has done… You’re talking about the critics who want more bombs dropping on them. Their attitude is just drop bombs and drop bombs and drop bombs, and they can’t really articulate to what end. What the president is saying, I’m willing to drop bombs, and he’s clearly shown that he’s willing to drop bombs, but only if it serves an objective. And so what he’s doing right now is taking a lot of pressure off of the world economy, the world energy economy in particular, while not giving up a single one of his gains and while preserving a lot of optionality. I think that’s a very good place for us to be in, but there’s uncertainty because no one can be certain what the Iranians are going to do.

RealClearPolitics Videos