Vance warns U.S. could restart military action if Iran talks fail

Vice President of the United States JD Vance President Donald Trump is still seeking a diplomatic deal with Iran but remains “ready” to restart military action if nuclear talks fail, he said on Tuesday.Speaking to reporters at a White House press briefing, Vance said the Trump administration was continuing negotiations in good faith while making clear it would never allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.“It takes two to tango,” Vance said.“We are not going to make a deal that would allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” he added, according to Fox News. The US vice president quoted Trump as further warning that Washington was prepared to resume military action if diplomacy failed.“As the president just told me, we’re loaded,” Vance said.“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,” he added.Vance said the administration currently sees two possible outcomes – a negotiated settlement or renewed military action.“We think the Iranians want a deal,” he said.“The President of the United States asked us to negotiate in good faith. And that’s exactly what we did,” he added.But he stressed that diplomacy would not undermine Washington’s core demands on Iran’s nuclear program.“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 added.A day earlier, Trump said he had suspended plans for a large-scale military strike against Iran as talks between the two sides showed signs of progress.“We were getting ready to launch a very significant attack, and I put it off for a while – hopefully maybe forever,” Trump said at the White House on Monday.“They seem to have a good chance of solving the problem,” he added.Trump also said he would prefer a diplomatic breakthrough to a military escalation.“I would be very happy if we could do that without bombing them,” the US president said.At a news conference on Tuesday, Vance also dismissed suggestions that any future conflict with Iran would turn into a long-term military engagement.“This is not a forever war,” he said.He added: “We’ll take care of things and go home.”The vice president further said that the United States and Iran had made “a lot of progress” in the talks and reiterated that preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon remains Washington’s primary goal.“We want to keep the number of countries with nuclear weapons small, which is why Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Vance said.