Vance: Iran Deal A “Very General Document,” We’ll Figure Out The Details In The “Technical Negotiation Phase”
Vice President Vance acknowledged that the preliminary U.S.-Iran memorandum is only “about a page and a half” and described it as a “very general document.” In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper,” Vance also claimed that Iran’s nuclear program has been “completely destroyed.”
JAKE TAPPER, CNN: If you don’t meet your end of the obligation, is it fair to say that it’s not spelled out that they have to end their ballistic missile program or end their funding of the Houthis in Hamas and Hezbollah, that that’s left purposefully vague. And then the U.S. will come later and say, you know that we expected this and you’re not behaving accordingly. I’m just trying to understand how the deal is written. VICE PRESIDENT J.D. VANCE: The MOU, Jake, is about a page and a half. So it is a very general document, but this has been very much part of the conversations that we’ve had with the Iranians and on a number of issues, we are going to have to figure this stuff out during the technical negotiation phase. But what the MOU does is set up a framework whereby the Iranians get the benefits of the bargain by meeting their obligations under the bargain. They know that we don’t want them to fund terrorist organizations. They know that we don’t want them to be a source of instability in the region. And of course, most importantly, they know that we want a verifiable long-term commitment to not build or procure a nuclear weapon. We have that in this agreement, Jake, but fundamentally it’s set up in such a way where we’re going to have to attach their commitments to deliverables that then are met with economic benefits for the Iranian people. That’s the way that we’ve structured it. One final just comment on this, Jake, if I could step back. Right now, the Iranian nuclear program has been completely destroyed. Their capacity to enrich uranium, their enriched stockpile of fuel is buried far below the earth. And we really have a two-way pathway to ensure the Iranians don’t ever rebuild that capacity. On the one hand, if they try to rebuild it, they’re never going to get the financial resources that they would need to rebuild a billions of dollars’ worth of nuclear program. On the other hand, if they’re willing to commit to verifiable milestones and to make sure that we feel confident they’re not going to rebuild that program, we’re going to totally transform our relationship with Iran and Iran’s relationship with the broader Middle East. So either way the United States wins, either way we ensure Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon, but we really prefer that they choose the option where there’s greater economic cooperation and where they behave like a normal country and are treated like one as well.
