During an interview scheduled to broadcast on "CBS Sunday Morning," US Vice President JD Vance revealed that the United States is bordering on a comprehensive agreement designed to neutralize Iran's atomic ambitions "for the long term," though he cautioned that the exact breakthrough could materialize as early as next week or potentially take several months.
Portions of Vance’s interview with Robert Costa were made public on Tuesday.
"Right now, I feel that we are in a position to get a deal that is good for the United States economically and that really does deal with the Iranian nuclear program, not just now, not just while Donald Trump is president, but for the long term, to where my kids can say when they're adults, 'Iran is not going to have a nuclear weapon,'" Vance said.
"That's the goal of the policy. And I think we're very close to achieving that goal. But we still got some wood to chop. We're going to keep doing it," he added.
The Vice President confirmed that the geopolitical pact would "absolutely" be finalized ahead of the upcoming legislative midterm elections in November.
"I think we're going to know a lot before the midterm elections," he said. "Look, I think that the deal could happen in the next week, but the deal could also happen months from now."
Vance’s comments echo ones he made to Fox News on Monday night, where he emphasized that despite a deep alignment of interests between the United States and Israel, the Trump administration's strategy toward Tehran will ultimately prioritize American national interests over external preferences.
"The Israelis and the United States, we have a lot of shared interests. But we also have some situations where our interests diverge, and I think where the president has been very clear here is that while Israel obviously has some objectives that it has, the United States' main objective in Iran is to ensure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon," Vance said.
"Over the last year and a half, we've created the space necessary where the president believes - and I think he's right - that we can get a long-term settlement to Iran's nuclear issue," Vance stated.
"Now, Israel may like that, they may not like that, but fundamentally, we think this is in the best interest of the United States of America," he said, adding that Washington will continue pursuing that goal because "that's what the president of the United States was elected to do."
Also on Monday, Trump said that the US will declare “total victory" over Iran in about two weeks.
The President made the comments at a telerally supporting Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and it's as simple as that. They cannot have, the destruction is so powerful, they cannot have a nuclear weapon. And Lindsey has been fighting with me all the way, all the way for that," Trump said.
“We've been a very tough team, and I think we are winning that battle, but you're really going to win it over the next two weeks when we declare total victory. It'll be a total victory. It'll happen very soon. And oil prices will come tumbling down," he added.