Vance: 'We're not at war with Iran, we're at war with Iran's nuclear program'
Vice President JD Vance said Sunday that despite the U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear sites last night, the U.S. is not at war with Iran.
"No, we're not at war with Iran, Jon. We're at war with Iran's nuclear program," Vance told ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl. "And I think the president took decisive action to destroy that program last night."
When asked if he could definitively say that Iran's nuclear program has now been destroyed, Vance said that the U.S. has set Iran's nuclear program back "substantially."
"Whether it's years or beyond that, we know it's going to be a very long time before Iran can even build a nuclear weapon if they want to," Vance said.
During his address to the nation Saturday night, President Donald Trump said that the strikes "completely and totally obliterated" Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities.
Pressed by Karl if the U.S. could say definitively that Iran's nuclear facilities had been destroyed, Vance could not directly confirm that and reiterated that Iran's nuclear program had been "substantially set back."
"I can say to the American people with great confidence -- that they are much further away from the nuclear program today than they were 24 hours ago," Vance said. "That was the objective of the mission, to destroy that Fordo nuclear site and of course, do some damage to the other sites as well. But we feel very confident that the Fordo nuclear site was substantially set back, and that was our goal."
When asked about what happened to the 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium that Iran had, Vance said that the administration would work in the coming weeks to do something about the fuel and would have conversations with the Iranians.
Discussing the possibility of Iran retaliating, Vance asserted that the U.S. would respond with "overwhelming force."
"How Iran responds, I think, is ultimately -- the ball is in their court," Vance said. "But if you look at what we did, it was very precise, very narrowly tailored to our objective. And if the Iranians decide to expand this, then that's ultimately their decision. And the president of the United States will respond in kind."
Vance said that Trump is not interested in a drawn-out conflict in the Middle East.
"That is not what we're getting ourselves involved in. What we're getting ourselves involved in is a very targeted effort to eliminate the Iranian nuclear program. That will continue to be the goal of American foreign policy. And it's that goal that is going to motivate our action in -- in the weeks and months to come."
In a post on his social media platform last week, Trump wrote a post directed at Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, writing that he was an "easy target."
Asked if the U.S. is targeting Khamenei and if the U.S. has ruled out trying to achieve regime change, Vance said that regime change was not an objective for the Trump administration.
"Well, first of all, we don't want to achieve regime change. We want to achieve the end of the Iranian nuclear program. Jon. That's America's objective, and that's what the president has set us out to do."
