WASHINGTON
US Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that President Donald Trump never sought to install Reza Pahlavi as Iran’s leader, describing the US-Iran framework agreement as part of a broader regional peace framework.
“The president of the United States never said that his goal was to install Reza Pahlavi to become the new leader of Iran,” Vance said in an interview with Megyn Kelly on YouTube.
“What he said is, if the Iranian people want to rise up… great; that’s their business… that’s between them and their government.”
Vance added that the US goal was a cessation of Iran’s nuclear program “either through diplomatic means or through military means, as he ultimately went down that pathway.”
The vice president described the agreement as “a regional peace deal” that would extend beyond Iran to include the Gulf states, Israel, and Lebanon.
“The idea is that if the Iranians comply, then we’re going to have a true transformative deal for the Middle East, and if not, they don’t get any economic benefits,” he said.
Vance also pushed back against comparisons to the Marshall Plan, saying the deal differed in two key ways.
“Number one, the Marshall Plan was a lot of American tax money — this is not American taxpayer money,” he said. “Number two, we’re saying you only get the benefits of the bargain if you change your behavior.”
“If they want the benefits of the bargain, enrichment is going to be on the table, and more importantly, verification and inspections are going to be on the table,” Vance said.
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed between the US and Iran electronically on Sunday, which includes an end to the military operations on all fronts and reopening the Strait of Hormuz while setting the stage for talks on Iran’s nuclear program linked to sanctions relief. The signing ceremony is scheduled for June 19 in Switzerland.
Trump, speaking on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France, pledged to release the full text of the MOU signed and said he would hold a press conference and read it “word by word.”
