Vance: Iran could trigger a “nuclear arms race” in the Gulf region

Vance’s comments at a White House news conference on Tuesday came a day after President Donald Trump delayed a decision to resume strikes against Iran at the request of Arab countries including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which said Tehran was acting “reasonably” in peace talks.

“We thought the Iranians wanted a deal. The president of the United States asked us to negotiate in good faith. And that’s exactly what we did,” the vice president said.

But Vance warned that diplomacy would not come at the expense of Trump’s key demand that Iran never acquire a nuclear weapon.

“As the president just told me, we’re ready,” Vance said, adding that he met with Trump before attending the news conference.

“We don’t want to go down that path. But the president is willing and able to go down that path if he has to,” the vice president said.

Vance said the United States has a “simple proposition” and has “two paths to take.”

“It is impossible for Iran to possess nuclear weapons,” he said, adding that if Tehran obtained nuclear weapons, other countries would “race” to acquire them, triggering a “nuclear arms race.”

“Iran will indeed be the first domino that triggers a nuclear arms race around the world,” he said.

“If the Iranians do acquire nuclear weapons, we know that many countries in the Gulf would want to have nuclear weapons of their own, and then many countries around the world would want to have nuclear weapons,” Vance said.

“As a father of three, I don’t want them to inherit a world where 20 other regimes – half of them very dangerous and very sympathetic to terrorists – have nuclear weapons,” Vance said.

“We want to keep the number of countries with nuclear weapons small, which is why Iran can’t have nuclear weapons. In addition to all the other things we might worry about, they could use nuclear weapons themselves, they could use it as leverage for economic control or economic negotiation. We just don’t want them to have nuclear weapons,” Vance said.

“There is an option B, and option B is that we can restart military operations, continue to prosecute this case and continue to work toward U.S. goals,” Vance said.

“But that’s not what the president wants. I don’t think that’s what the Iranians want, either,” he said.

He said there was an opportunity to reset Washington’s relationship with Tehran “but it will take two people working together.”

This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.