Vice President JD Vance said the US holds significant leverage in negotiations with Iran and expressed confidence that upcoming talks would lead to a successful agreement.
"I think the best outcome is a good deal for the American people, which we have fundamentally," Vance said in an interview with CNBC.
Discussing negotiations expected later this week, Vance said: "We expect to have a full spectrum of representatives at the negotiation on Friday. Again, we've been talking to these people sometimes indirectly, but sometimes directly, and that's what's fundamentally changed under the president's leadership."
He said the Trump administration is now engaging directly with Iran, adding: "We have some good relationships there."
"This is going to be a successful negotiation, because you know we're not passing messages through various back channels anymore. We're actually talking to them, and when you talk to them, you figure out what's real, what's fake, what are they serious about, what are they not serious about," he said.
Highlighting Washington's position ahead of the talks, Vance said: "We fundamentally have all the cards here. We don't have to give the Iranians anything if they don't make the commitments that we want long term on the nuclear program, and even if we just stopped here, what would be true? Their military is destroyed, the Straits of Hormuz are open, their nuclear program has been destroyed, and we have incredible economic leverage over them that we didn't have a year and a half ago."
Vance further noted that Washington remains open to improving relations with Tehran, saying: "If you guys want to meet us, if you guys want to change your relationship with the United States, we will change our relationship with Iran. That's the offer. We're going to have to see whether they meet us there."
Addressing concerns about Israel's reaction to a potential agreement, Vance said: "Well, first of all, I think there are elements within Israel that like the deal quite a bit, and I also think there's been some misreporting about the deal."
He added that the administration hopes to release the text of the agreement this week and said it would make the region safer and help create "a new Middle East, not just for the next few years, but for the next generation."
.jpg.jpeg)