US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the war with Iran is "close to over," according to excerpts published from an interview with Fox News' Maria Bartiromo set to air Wednesday on "Mornings with Maria."
During the interview, Bartiromo pressed Trump on the status of the Iran conflict, asking whether the war had ended.
“I think it’s - I had to divert because if I didn’t do that, right now you’d have Iran with a nuclear weapon," Trump said.
“And if they had a nuclear weapon, you’d be calling everyone over there ‘sir,’ and you don’t want to do that."
When asked directly if the war was over, Trump signaled that it was nearing its conclusion.
“I think it’s close to over, yeah," he said, adding, “I view it as very close to being over."
The comments come amid reports that the US and Iran could meet for another round of talks, after a round of negotiations in Pakistan over the weekend failed to result in an agreement.
US Vice President JD Vance addressed a Turning Point USA event in Georgia earlier on Tuesday, saying that there is “a lot of mistrust" between the US and Iran, but also said that he is optimistic about the prospects of a deal.
“It's a meeting that had never before happened. We had never had a meeting like that where you have the person who's effectively running the country in Iran sitting across from the Vice President of the United States," Vance said of the meetings in Islamabad.
“Look, honestly, after 49 years, there's a lot of mistrust between Iran and the United States of America. You're not going to solve that problem overnight. But yeah, I think the people we're sitting across from wanted to make a deal. And I know the President of the United States told us to go out there and negotiate in good faith. That's what we did. That's what we're going to keep on doing. You never know though," he added.
Vance also said that President Donald Trump seeks what he described as a “grand bargain" with Iran.
“[Trump] said, ‘If you guys commit to not having a nuclear weapon, we are going to make Iran thrive, we're going to make it economically prosperous’, and we're going to invite the Iranian people into the world economy in a way they haven't been in my entire life. And that's the kind of Trumpian grand bargain that the president has put on the table. We're going to keep on negotiating and try to make it happen because it would be great for the world, it'd be great for our country, it'd be great for everybody," said the Vice President.
Despite the fact that Vance announced early Sunday morning that the talks in Pakistan had failed, CNN reported on Monday that Trump administration officials are internally discussing details for a potential second, in-person meeting with Iranian officials.