Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday that recent U.S. military operations have pushed Iran’s nuclear program farther from producing a nuclear weapon than at any point in the past several decades, arguing that the strikes have dramatically strengthened the Trump administration’s position as negotiations with Tehran continue.

Addressing American service members at a naval air station, Vance pointed to U.S. intelligence assessments indicating that Iran’s nuclear ambitions have suffered a major setback as a result of the military campaign.

“If you look at what our own intelligence says about their nuclear program, they are further away from developing a nuclear bomb than they have ever been since basically the last 20 or 30 years,” said the Vice President.

Vance explained that the mission extended beyond disrupting Iran’s nuclear activities. He said the goal was to cripple the country’s defense manufacturing infrastructure so thoroughly that any future effort to rebuild its military or nuclear capabilities would pose little danger.

“What the president asks you to accomplish is to destroy the defense industrial base of that country, so that if they ever decided to rebuild their military, or if they ever decided to rebuild that nuclear program, they would be harmless to do it. You did that exactly as well,” Vance said to the assembled audience.

He also praised the military’s performance, saying it had provided President Donald Trump with substantial leverage in ongoing negotiations with Iran by demonstrating American strength.

According to Vance, Trump is now “negotiating from a position of strength because of you.”

The vice president added that the administration remains prepared to respond forcefully if Iran resumes nuclear development, threatens neighboring countries, or continues sponsoring terrorism.

“If the Iranians try to rebuild the nuclear program, the President’s got options. If the Iranians try to threaten their neighbors or fund terrorism, we’ve got options,” stressed Vance.

Vance also criticized those who have attacked the administration for pursuing negotiations with Iran, arguing that many of the same critics previously supported prolonged military campaigns that ultimately failed to achieve clear objectives.

“What I noticed about the people who are attacking the administration for negotiating is that they are the very same people who, for example, encouraged us to just go a little bit further and just drop a few more bombs in places like Afghanistan. If you go back to the mistakes that were made, those very same people refused to say what we were dropping bombs for.”

Even while emphasizing diplomacy, Vance said the administration will not hesitate to use military force when necessary to protect American interests and international commerce.

“We dropped some bombs a couple of days ago… Because the Iranians were shooting at commercial ships… We applied some leverage, and we’ve had free commercial transit for the last three days,” Vance claimed.

His remarks came as Washington and Tehran continue negotiations aimed at reaching a permanent agreement following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding.

Despite the ongoing diplomatic efforts, tensions flared over the weekend when U.S. forces twice struck Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz after officials said Iran violated the ceasefire agreement.

On Saturday night, President Trump warned that the United States could be compelled to “militarily complete the job” if Iran continued breaching the ceasefire.

Iran subsequently denied reports that its negotiators would meet with American officials in Qatar, stating that while a technical delegation would travel to Doha to discuss implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding, no direct U.S.-Iran meetings were scheduled.

President Trump contradicted that claim, telling reporters that meetings with Iranian representatives in Qatar were expected to take place and could be “perhaps important, perhaps not”.

Later reports indicated that U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff was traveling to Doha to participate in the anticipated talks with Iranian officials.

{Matzav.com}