Donald Trump “may decide he needs to take further action” to stop Iran enriching uranium, vice-president JD Vance said on Tuesday.
In comments on X, Vance, who has taken a more isolationist stance on foreign policy than many other Republicans, said Trump was “only interested in using the American military to accomplish the American people’s goals”.
But he also wrote that the president “may decide he needs to take further action to end Iranian [uranium] enrichment”, referring to the process that can produce both nuclear fuel and weapons-grade material.
“That decision ultimately belongs to the president,” Vance added.
His comments came less than an hour before Trump called for Tehran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” on his own Truth Social network and boasted that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was an “easy target”.
Trump also highlighted the US’s contribution to Israel’s war effort, associating Washington with the country’s claim to have established air superiority over Tehran.
French President Emmanuel Macron, however, has warned that it would be the “biggest error” to seek regime change in Iran, warning that the ousting of the Iranian leaders would lead to “chaos”.
Washington has adopted a defensive posture in the conflict, according to US officials, but this has included helping Israel to shoot down incoming Iranian missiles and drones using American naval ships in the Mediterranean.
If the US were to intervene directly, it might deploy B-2 stealth bombers deployed in Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities.
One such target could be the uranium enrichment facility at Fordow near the city of Qom, which is dug into a mountainside under dozens of metres of reinforced concrete.
Iran has said it will only agree to negotiate an end to the conflict and resume talks over its nuclear programme if Israeli forces halted their bombing campaign, according to diplomats.
Israel has launched waves of missiles into Iran since it began its attack on Friday. Iran has retaliated with volleys of missiles across Israel. Both sides have sustained casualties.
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