Vice President J.D. Vance said in an interview with Fox News Channel’s “Special Report” that negotiations “did make some progress” in the Islamabad talks on the U.S. insistence on the removal of nuclear material from Iran as well as a mechanism to ensure uranium cannot be enriched in the future.
“They moved in our direction,” Vance said in the interview. He said he thought Iranian negotiators were “unable to cut a deal” and needed to get approval from others in Tehran.
Vance also said that U.S. negotiators made clear that President Donald Trump “would be very happy if Iran was treated like a normal country, if it had a normal economy,” but he did not go into details about what he meant.
“There really is, I think, a grand deal to be had here. But, it’s up to the Iranians, I think, to take the next step,” Vance said.
On Monday, President Trump refused to apologize to Pope Leo XIV after criticizing the pontiff for his opposition to the war in Iran — and he sought to explain away a now-deleted social media post depicting himself as Jesus by saying he had thought the image was of him as a doctor.
Trump was asked about his comments toward the U.S.-born head of the Catholic Church, as well as the post depicting himself as a saint-like healer, in a hastily called question-and-answer session with reporters at the White House.
“He was very much against what I’m doing with regard to Iran, and you cannot have a nuclear Iran. Pope Leo would not be happy with the end result,” Trump said, adding, “I think he’s very weak on crime and other things, so I’m not” going to apologize.
Vance, in the Fox News Interview, downplayed any fallout from the social media post.
“I actually think that’s one of the good things about this president is that he’s not filtered. He doesn’t send everything through a communications professional. He actually reaches out directly to the people.”
He also said the disagreements between the White House and the Vatican were not “particularly newsworthy.”
