WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance says the negotiations with Iran will last as long as the president wants him negotiating with Iran.
“We’re going to keep on talking so long as the president tells us to do so,” Vance told The Daily Wire in a wide-ranging interview as the cease fire with Iran broke down. “When the president says stop talking to the Iranians, then we’ll stop talking to the Iranians.”
The tense ceasefire between the United States and Iran went up in flames last week, with President Donald Trump declaring the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding and the ceasefire dead after the Iranians attacked commercial shipping vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. The president called Iran’s leaders “scum” and “sick people,” but said he would allow negotiations to continue.
Asked if he personally wants to negotiate with Iran, the vice president said the administration is moving in lockstep together on the process with Iran.
“What so many people from the outside of the administration don’t appreciate is that we all have obviously very robust conversations about how to solve this or that problem, but when the president makes a decision, we follow that decision,” he added. “And right now, the decision is talk to the Iranians. And when the decision becomes stop talking, obviously I’ll be the first to know.”
Vance told The Daily Wire that the “first and most important step” forward is for the Iranians to honor the agreement between Iran and the United States, and pointed to it as a success of the MOU that Iran is failing to uphold its end of the agreement.
“I always found it a little curious,” he added, “You know, there was so much criticism of the original MOU, oftentimes before people had even read the language, and I think what we’re finding is that the MOU was in fact a very good deal for the United States of America because the Iranians are struggling to keep even its first and most important term, which is that the Strait of Hormuz has to be open during negotiation.”
US Vice President JD Vance as he boards Air Force Two after attending talks on Iran in Islamabad on April 12, 2026. (Photo by Jacquelyn MARTIN / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
The United States knew that keeping the Strait of Hormuz open was a big deal for the Iranians and demanded this point as an “extraction” before even sitting down at the table and Iran conceded it, Vance said.
“And having conceded it, you see some people within their country saying, ‘Well, maybe we shouldn’t have conceded it.’ Well, that’s that’s between them and their leadership. But fundamentally, when you make a deal with the United States, you have to honor it. And if they’re going to shoot at ships, we’re going to shoot back.”
If Iran is not going to take the negotiation seriously, Vance said, the United States will not either.
“The most important next step is that the Iranians need to make it very clear that they are done acting like a terrorist nation that shoots at commercial shipping,” he emphasized. “And if they don’t do that, we’re not going to make any additional progress, and none of the benefits that are contemplated in the final negotiation are ever going to flow to the Iranians.”
Pressed to address concerns that there doesn’t appear to be an off-ramp to the conflict with prospects for a deal broken down, Vance said that every strike has a purpose and reiterated that “Donald Trump doesn’t do endless wars.”
Right now the strikes are aimed at keeping the Strait of Hormuz operational, he said.
“Every strike that we’ve done is attached to a very discreet objective that he’s trying to accomplish for the American people, and you know what he’s doing fundamentally right now, is he’s focused on ensuring that commercial shipping, the free flow of oil and gas happens in that region of the world because the benefits ultimately flow to the American people,” Vance explained.
Vance said that the United States has already destroyed Iran’s nuclear program, saying, “we can take further action there, but you know we’re in a situation where we have a lot of optionality.”
“But I’m not worried, and I don’t think the American people should be worried, that this will become a war without objective,” he said. “That’s what an endless war is — something that just goes on forever and ever without a clear objective. The president has identified clear objectives.”
Vance added: “We actually did stop shooting, as everybody knows well. And what changed that? It was when the Iranians violated the deal and started to shoot at commercial shipping.
“It’s important for the United States to enforce its red lines,” Vance said. “That doesn’t mean that we have endless war and this conflict or any other.”
