The U.S. holds the upper hand in negotiations underway in the Middle East, Vice President JD Vance said in an exclusive interview Tuesday. He argued the Trump administration has already achieved its core objective in Iran, regardless of how the high-stakes talks in Doha unfold.
"We have all the cards in the negotiation," Vance told "The Ingraham Angle."
"We obviously want it to be successful, but even if it's not successful, we've accomplished the core mission, which is to ensure that the Iranians never have a nuclear weapon," he said.
VANCE SAYS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S KEY OBJECTIVES HAVE BEEN REACHED IN US-IRAN DEAL
"In other words, it's a win-win outcome for the American people."
The vice president said successful negotiations would mean Iran is "permanently transformed" — without nuclear ambitions and no longer funding proxies that have wreaked havoc across the broader Middle East.
Under those conditions, he said, Iran could be "welcomed back into the world economy."
"That's a great outcome for the American people. It's a greater outcome for the whole region," Vance said.
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"But if, on the other hand, the Iranians don't behave, if they don't make the concessions in the negotiations that we need to see, their nuclear program is still destroyed, their conventional military is still destroyed and the United States is still in a much stronger position relative to the Iranians."
Vance's remarks come after U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Qatar for talks with mediators this week, though reports suggest there will be no high-level meeting between Washington and Tehran.
Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari told reporters Tuesday that, to his knowledge, "There are no direct meetings scheduled between the two parties in the coming days."
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated on "Fox & Friends" earlier this week that Iran had requested talks, and other members of the Trump administration, including President Donald Trump himself, have made similar remarks.