US vice president Vance: Iran must reduce nuclear enrichment capacity to end war - source interview

Vance says Iran must meaningfully reduce enrichment capacity to help end conflict Washington is unsure how Tehran makes decisions in nuclear negotiations, Vance says Vance says war's end goal is preventing nuclear proliferation in Middle East Vance dismissed 2028 speculation, saying his focus is Republican midterm victories By Jacob Bogage FAIRBANKS, Alaska, Oct 6 (Reuters) — US Vice President JD Vance gave an exclusive interview to Reuters on Monday while campaigning in Alaska, a state that has emerged as a key battleground in the November elections that will determine control of Congress. This transcript of the interview, which took place after a rally at Fairbanks International Airport for Republican US Senator Dan Sullivan, has been edited lightly for length and clarity. Jacob Bogage, Reuters: Mr. Vice President, let's start here. Can you tell me about where things stand with Iran right now? Vice President JD Vance: Well, you know, we're at a place where the Iranians are trying to terrorize the world economy by shooting at commercial shipping. They're largely failing. They're hitting some ships, but not enough to stop the flow of oil and gas. So what that means is, their response to us destroying the nuclear program was to try to terrorize commercial shipping and exercise leverage over the United States of America. And where we are is, as the president said, the nuclear program's been destroyed, but every time they try to squeeze the world economy, we actually squeeze them harder. And so I think what the president has said is, look, you guys fundamentally are not in a game that's going to work out for you. Every time they try to cause damage to the world economy, they end up causing much greater damage to themselves, and eventually they're going to have to decide either to make smarter decisions or to suffer the consequences. Bogage: You've played a pivotal role in terms of American foreign policy writ large, turning how the US engages on the world's stage from conflicts without direct American interests, like Ukraine, to conflicts with direct American interests, like Iran. Tell me a little bit about what does it take for the US to resume kinetic attacks? What do you need to hear? Or, rather, what do you need to not hear? Vance: That's obviously a decision the president of the United States will make. But you know, we have to start with a fundamental goal here. The goal here is to prevent the Iranians from having a nuclear weapon, and really to prevent regional nuclear proliferation. Because, as the president's reminded people, it's if the Iranians get a nuclear weapon, then other countries will get a nuclear weapon. Bogage: Is that a larger focus than where this conflict began? Vance: To finish that question, what that means is their nuclear facilities, their enrichment facilities, have been destroyed, and we're going to ensure that they can't rebuild those facilities and rebuild their nuclear capacity. That's fundamentally the goal here, an