Vance calls Iran ceasefire a "fragile truce," says some inside Iran "lying" about deal
Washington — Vice President JD Vance, who is on a trip to Hungary, called the U.S.-Iran ceasefire a "fragile truce" on Wednesday.
He said the Iranian foreign minister responded favorably to the agreement, but that others in the country are "lying."
"This is why I say this is a fragile truce," Vance said in Budapest. "You have people who clearly want to come to the negotiating table and work with us to find a good deal and then you have people who are lying about even the fragile truths that we've already struck."
Vance said President Trump has shown "we still have clear military, diplomatic and, maybe most importantly, we have extraordinary economic leverage."
But he said the president "has told us not to use those tools."
"He's told us to come to negotiating table," Vance said. "But if the Iranians don't do the exact same thing, they're going to find out that the president of the United States is not one to mess around. He's impatient. He's impatient to make progress."
Vance said Tuesday, before an agreement was announced, that the U.S. has largely accomplished its military objectives in Iran, but noted, "There are still some things that we'd like to do — for example, on Iranian ability to manufacture weapons. That we'd like to do a little more work on militarily."
"But fundamentally, the military objectives of the United States have been completed," he said.
Vance was in Hungary when the ceasefire agreement was announced and said he was there "to help" Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's reelection bid.
Speaking to thousands of Hungarians five days before Hungary's Sunday parliamentary elections, the vice president weighed in on the foreign election in the Russia-allied Hungary, telling the crowd, "we have got to get Viktor Orbán reelected as prime minister of Hungary, don't we?"
Vance rang Mr. Trump as he began his Tuesday speech and, after a couple tries, got the president on the phone. "I love Hungary and I love that Viktor," Mr. Trump told the crowd through the speakerphone.
Vance said he visited Orbán because the two countries are fighting for the "defense of Western civilization," even though Orbán is considered by many Western political experts to be an "illiberal democrat" or an "electoral autocrat." Despite the controversy, Mr. Trump has long lauded Orbán, and Vance did on Tuesday as well.
The Hungarian prime minister is seeking his fifth consecutive term in office. Freedom House, a democracy-oriented, U.S.-based nonprofit, designates Hungary as only "partly free," citing issues with less-than-free-and-fair elections and a stifling of independent institutions.
"Will you stand against the bureaucrats in Brussels?" Vance concluded. "Will you stand for sovereignty and democracy? Will you stand for Western civilization? Will you stand for freedom, for truth and for the God of our fathers? Then my friends, go to the polls in the weekend, stand with Viktor Orbán because he stands for you and he stands for all these things."
