Vance Says Iran Nuclear Agreement Within Reach as Trump Keeps Military Option on Table
Vice President JD Vance said Monday that the Trump administration is increasingly hopeful of reaching a negotiated agreement with Iran, although Tehran must provide concrete, verifiable assurances that it will not restore its nuclear program. Vance said Washington has established no deadline for a deal, even as President Donald Trump continues to warn that military action remains an option if diplomacy fails.
Speaking with reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Vance described recent discussions with Iranian representatives as encouraging and revealed that he had spoken with Trump about the negotiations just an hour earlier.
Trump and I both feel pretty good about the prospects for potentially coming to a negotiated settlement.
We've certainly made some progress. We'll see if we can make some more. pic.twitter.com/Gl4uMGRjbG
— Clash Report (@clashreport) November 2, 2026
“We’ve had a number of good conversations with the Iranians,” Vance said. “I actually spoke with the President of the United States about this an hour ago.”
“The President and I both feel pretty good about the prospects for potentially coming to a negotiated settlement. We’re going to keep on working at it. You never know, of course. The Iranians are always a little unpredictable, and as the President always says, he retains kinetic options, he retains non-kinetic options,” the Vice President added.
“We’ve certainly made some progress. We’ll see if we can make some more,” he said.
Vance dismissed suggestions that the administration had imposed a specific timetable on Iran, explaining that Washington’s overriding objective is to prevent the country from reconstituting nuclear capabilities that American military operations previously targeted.
“No, we haven’t set deadlines. I mean, look, we’ve said, ‘Here’s what we want.’ And what we want is, having destroyed their nuclear program, we want to make sure they don’t rebuild it or try to rebuild it. That’s what matters most to the United States.”
The vice president acknowledged that Iranian leaders are seeking to preserve their sovereignty and revive their battered economy. He indicated that those priorities could provide an opening for an agreement, provided Tehran accepts meaningful restrictions on its nuclear activities.
“The thing I’ve picked up is they care a lot, obviously, about their sovereignty. They care a lot about economically rebuilding. We do think that there is a pathway there, but it really does require a firm commitment and a verifiable commitment that they don’t rebuild that nuclear program.”
Trump offered a similarly upbeat assessment Monday, pointing to a sharp decline in oil prices as evidence that markets increasingly expect an agreement rather than another round of fighting.
“Oil Prices are DROPPING LIKE A ROCK, down almost $10 a Barrel, A RECORD, because people feel that there will not be a War with Iran. Iran wants a settlement, as soon as possible. It could happen!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
During a separate appearance at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, the president again suggested that Tehran was prepared to negotiate an end to the confrontation.
“They want to make a deal. And it could happen.”
Trump also portrayed the American military campaign against Iran as a decisive success, arguing that U.S. forces had already inflicted devastating damage on the country’s military capabilities.
“We had a war with Iran. We won, and I don’t even know if you can call it a war because we haven’t been fighting for months,” Trump said, adding, “It’s not a war. We’ve done very little fighting. We’ve wiped out their military and air force and we did everything we had to do.”
The president credited American military achievements with helping drive oil prices down by approximately $10 per barrel and predicted additional declines. He also asserted that Iran was experiencing severe economic distress, including inflation exceeding 300%.
