JD Vance claims US holds all the cards in Iran and will win ‘either way’

JD Vance said on Friday that the US wins “either way” regarding negotiations with Iran , pointing to what he called the destruction of its nuclear program and diminishment as a country. “If we make the final deal, then great,” the US vice-president told HBO’s Bill Maher . “If we don’t make the final deal, their nuclear program is still destroyed. They’re still much weaker as a country, so my attitude is America wins either way.” Vance said that the increased flow of oil through the strait of Hormuz was a “signal that there’s something real going on”. But he acknowledged that the ceasefire deal between Donald Trump and the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, under a 60-day memorandum of understanding (MOU), “is always going to be a little messy when you’re dealing with the Iranians”. Vance’s appearance on the politics-flavored comedy talkshow Real Time came hours before it was reported that a tanker was struck by a projectile in the strait and the US and Iran each launched strikes in the worst escalation since they signed the interim peace deal. Washington said ​it hit Iranian targets overnight, while Iran said it had struck targets linked to US forces on Saturday in response. Saturday’s attack on a tanker followed an attack on a cargo ship on Thursday that triggered the hostilities. Vance’s comments came during an appearance to promote his new memoir, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, but most of the segment concerned foreign and domestic policy issues. …