Vice President JD Vance took the podium in the White House briefing room Tuesday, filling in for press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who is on maternity leave.
Vance suggested it has been difficult to receive a unified response from Iranian leaders, saying different factions within the country may be pursuing or pushing for different policies.
“I don't know if that's sometimes bad communication, if that's bad faith. And so what we've done is tried to be as clear as possible. What are our red lines? What are the things that we're willing to be accommodating on? And what are the things that we absolutely must have? And as the president has said ad nauseam, and I think I've said it a lot too, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Vance said.
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Vance’s comments came less than 24 hours after President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he called off a planned round of strikes on Iran at the urging of Arab leaders, noting the leaders believe a deal will be made that would be “very acceptable to the United States” as well as countries throughout the Middle East.
The president expanded on his reasoning for delaying the planned strikes while speaking to reporters Monday as construction continued on his ballroom project.
“I was an hour away from making the decision to go today. And we would probably not be talking about a beautiful ballroom today. We'd be talking about that and ... I had made the decision.”
While the strikes are on hold, they have not been ruled out altogether, and violence could resume at any moment. According to comments from Iranian leaders, another proposal was sent to the United States on Monday. The U.S. has not shared details about the specifics of the negotiations.
