Iranupdated 17m ago3 min read
Archive photo · 6 October 2017Trump Orders J. D. Vance to Focus on U.S. Corruption, Says No Iran Deal Needed
“Trump signaled he plans to wind down negotiations with Iran, saying a deal with Tehran is not needed, as he pulled Vice President JD Vance off diplomatic efforts”
“‘We don’t need a deal with Iran,’ he added.”
Photo: Shealah Craighead / White House, Public domain · Cropped for layout
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Trump says the United States does not need a deal with Iran. Trump orders Vice President JD Vance to focus on domestic corruption and crime.
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Trump sidelines Vance
President Donald Trump told Vice President J. D. Vance, “We don’t need a deal with Iran,” and ordered him to “focus his complete and total attention on the Massive Corruption and Crime taking place in Democrat run Cities and States throughout the U.S.”
“At this moment, no military action will be necessary.”
Trump’s posts also asserted, “We’ve got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we’ve got their Strait,” while the article described Vance as a critic of the US-Israeli war on Iran and a supporter of a deal.
The BBC said American media reported that dropping Vance from handling talks with Iran followed his blunt criticism that the Iran war was the main reason for Republicans’ large defeat in the congressional elections.
The BBC also reported that Trump’s social media message came after he had told CBS’s “60 Minutes” program that he “was not seeking” to escalate the war, and after Trump told reporters in the White House briefing room, “At this moment, no military action will be necessary.”
Tehran sets conditions
A senior Iranian security official insisted Thursday that Tehran would “decide on the manner and agenda of any negotiations” with the U.S. only after its “seven conditions are fulfilled and accepted.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio called those conditions “unacceptable,” while the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council vowed Wednesday that Tehran would not allow the removal of “even a single particle of enriched nuclear material” from the country.
The CBS report said Iran's Revolutionary Guard says it destroyed a U.S. early warning radar in Bahrain and that it “couldn’t be independently verified,” with an IRNA report linking the attack to a U.S. strike on a telecommunications pole in southern Iran’s port city of Sirik. The CBS report also said the IRGC claimed a ship in the Strait of Hormuz was hit by a mine and exploded violently, while it added that the U.S. military “claims to have cleared the waterway's routes of mines.”
Diplomacy and the next risk
The Al Jazeera report described a diplomatic effort in which Vance led US negotiations in April in Islamabad and helped secure the June memorandum of understanding with Iran, which it said “quickly collapsed” over gaps including “control of the Strait of Hormuz.” The Al Jazeera report also said Vance led direct talks with Iran in Switzerland and was part of renewed diplomatic efforts engaging Qatari and Pakistani mediators, while it said Vance publicly questioned whether the war had been worth the political and economic costs.
The MUNDIARIO report said the White House introduced a new twist by pulling Vance out of efforts to revive negotiations with Tehran and ordering him to devote attention to alleged corruption, and it quoted Trump writing, “I have asked Vice President Vance to devote his full attention to the corruption and mass crime occurring in the cities and states managed by Democrats across the United States.” The MUNDIARIO report framed the stakes as unresolved, saying the change left “unresolved the fundamental question: what does Trump intend to do to end the conflict?” while it described Washington maintaining a naval blockade of Iranian ports and both countries disputing control and safety of maritime traffic.
