US Vice President JD Vance said that while military strikes against Iran remain under consideration by President Donald Trump, there is “no chance” that such strikes would result in the United States becoming involved in a years-long, drawn-out war.
Speaking with The Washington Post on Thursday, Vance said he does not know what Trump will decide to do about Iran, describing possibilities that include military strikes “to ensure Iran isn’t going to get a nuclear weapon,” or solving “the problem diplomatically.”
But if Trump proceeds with another round of strikes on Iran — which some U.S. officials have suggested could be more comprehensive than the bombing of nuclear sites in June — Vance said confidently that it would not turn into the kind of conflict the vice president has harshly criticized.
“The idea that we’re going to be in a Middle Eastern war for years with no end in sight — there is no chance that will happen,” he told The Post in an interview as he returned to Washington from an event in Wisconsin, effectively pushing back against predictions by some foreign policy experts that there would be no easy out if America got involved in a bigger conflict with Iran.
Vance noted that last year’s operation in Iran and the January capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro were “very clearly defined.”
Vance, a 41-year-old Marine veteran who served in the Iraq War, once said from the Senate floor that he had been “lied to” about the reasons for the United States’ involvement there. He said Thursday that he still sees himself as a “skeptic of foreign military interventions,” a description he believes continues to apply to Trump.
“I think we all prefer the diplomatic option,” Vance said. “But it really depends on what the Iranians do and what they say.”
Talks between the U.S. and Iran continued Thursday in Geneva amid a large-scale buildup of U.S. forces around Iran, though no resolution was reached, and mediators said the negotiations would continue next week.
