Vice President JD Vance Goes on Record Over Iran Deal

President Trump signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) last night in France, and this morning, Vice President JD Vance delivered a White House press briefing to address conflicting reports from the mainstream media about the details of the MOU.

As reported by The Hill:

Vice President Vance will brief reporters in the White House briefing room on Thursday following the signing of the memorandum of understanding(MOU) between the U.S. and Iran.

The briefing will mark Vance’s second time at the briefing podium since press secretary Karoline Leavitt went on maternity leave earlier this year.

The vice president will be pressed on the preliminary agreement, which he has spent most of the week touting in a media tour while promoting his new memoir “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith.”

Vance was initially set to attend a formal signing ceremony in Lucerne, Switzerland, but President Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed the MOU remotely on Wednesday.

The vice president is still slated to attend formal talks in Switzerland, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The administration has propped Vance up as the face of the negotiations since April, when he led the U.S. delegation in talks with Iranian officials in Islamabad.

Vance, of course, has been heading up much of the negotiating with Iran, and, quite frankly, taking a lot of flak for it, whether deserved or not.

The Vice President made it clear that the Trump Administration’s number one expectation is that Iran stop developing nuclear weapons and that it never get access to a nuclear weapon. One reporter asked what’s to stop Iran from signing this agreement and still obtaining a nuke down the road, and how the MOU addresses that. 

As Vance explained:

Well, number one, they would have to get a lot of money in order to rebuild their nuclear program. You’re talking about billions and billions of nuclear infrastructure that the United States destroyed. In order for them to rebuild that program, they would have to get a lot of money, and we have them in an economic chokehold right now that we’re not going to release until they fundamentally change their behavior.

What would that look like? That would mean a real inspections regime. That would mean a real enforcement regime, as the MOU contemplates. That would mean the destruction of their enriched stockpile. All of these things are the sorts of steps you’re going to take if you’re serious about ending your nuclear weapons program. And that, again, is why I go back to this fundamental trade that’s built into the deal. They need money to do anything. Their economy is in absolute dire straits. But in order for them to get any integration into the world economy, they’re going to have to show us and verify for us that they are changing their behavior.

Vance did say that Iran has “committed to the destruction of the highly enriched stockpile that they have in their possession.” But he also stated we don’t trust words; we trust actions and conduct. As he stated, “We’re about verification.” And that part of the deal would be Iran submitting to inspectors to come in and destroy any highly enriched uranium.

U.S. Special Presidential Envoy Ric Grenell joined the broadcast and shared his reaction:

As JD Vance said today, [Iran has] been devastated with trillions of dollars in destruction. And so, when you have a decimated leadership – we’re down to like stage three for their leadership – and you’ve decimated their economy, they don’t have much money, and you’ve decimated their military, and you’ve decimated their nuclear program. As JD also said – I think he’s right – why not test it and say, Can you change your habits? Can you come forward and not threaten your neighbors and threaten the United States and not pursue a nuclear weapon?

We are in that testing phase, and we have put together a variety of steps to make sure that they don’t get rewarded until this new era is tested. . . . Nothing is going to be given to the Iranians unless they take action, not just words, but it is a new day, and I think people need to understand that they’re in a fundamentally different position.

The bottom line for now is that the MOU has been signed, and we can now move forward. A final deal will still come some 30-plus days from now.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included more discussion of the MOU, what it means, and what happens next, including more with Special Presidential Envoy Ric Grenell.

Watch the full broadcast below: