Vice President JD Vance voiced optimism after President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, promising tomorrow would be “a new day.”
Vance appeared for a scheduled interview with Fox News on Monday but learned just moments before going live that Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. The vice president said he was aware a decision was close and was part of discussions, but was pleasantly surprised to hear the deal was reached so early. He portrayed the United States’s intervention as an unadultered success, destroying the Iranian nuclear program without getting sucked into a long-feared quagmire.
“First of all, the president, without, knock on wood, having a single American casualty, obliterated the Iranian nuclear program. We are now in a place where we weren’t a week ago. A week ago, Iran was very close to having a nuclear weapon. Now Iran is incapable of building a nuclear weapon with the equipment they have because we destroyed it,” he said.
Vance said the U.S. would talk to Israel and Iran “about what the future holds” and would now work to build a long-term peace settlement.
He portrayed the “12 Day War” as a possible watershed moment in Middle Eastern history, signaling an opportunity for Iran to change course.
“For the Iranians, I think this is a new opportunity to actually pursue the path of peace. As I said yesterday, what the Iranians have shown through their support of terror networks, through their now failed effort to build a nuclear weapon, is that they’re just not very good at war,” Vance said.
“And I think the president really hit the reset button and said, ‘Look, let’s actually produce long-term peace for the region.’ That’s always been his goal. I actually think when we look back, we will say the 12 Day War was an important reset moment for the entire region,” he added.
Vance portrayed the damage to Iranian military capabilities as total, with the country physically unable to continue the war even if they had the willpower.
“Their air defenses have been totally destroyed. Their conventional missile program has been largely destroyed. Of course, their nuclear program has been obliterated, as I said before. So I think the Iranians are at a place where they don’t want to keep on fighting,” he said.
Vance acknowledged that fighting would continue for another few hours, as Trump stipulated, but that “tomorrow really is a new day, the end of the 12 Day War, the end of the Iranian nuclear program. And I really do believe the beginning of something very big for peace in the Middle East.”
Vance dismissed fears of Iran rebuilding its nuclear program, saying the country is now aware that if it tries to recover its uranium enrichment capabilities, it will have to face a “very, very powerful American military.”
Despite Trump’s apparent flirtation with the idea, the vice president said the administration’s goal was never to impose regime change. However, it wouldn’t take issue with a change of power in Tehran outside its doing. The goal all along was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear program, which he said was successful.
TRUMP ANNOUNCES CEASEFIRE BETWEEN ISRAEL AND IRAN TO CONCLUDE ’12 DAY WAR’
Vance’s view of the future was highly optimistic. He argued that Iran could join the rest of the Middle East in pivoting toward economic progress.
“We really think that if the Iranians are smart about the path forward, this could be a new dawn of an economic age of prosperity, of course, for our Gulf Arab allies, for us, for the Israelis, for everybody, but it’s going to require the Iranians play it smart from here,” he said.