Vance: Iran deal could happen in a week or months from now — but “absolutely” before midterms

Vice President JD Vance said the U.S. is “very close” to reaching a deal that would address Iran’s nuclear program “for the long term,” but that it could come next week or months from now.

“Right now, I feel that we are in a position to get a deal that is good for the United States economically and that really does deal with the Iranian nuclear program, not just now, not just while Donald Trump is president, but for the long term, to where my kids can say when they’re adults, ‘Iran is not going to have a nuclear weapon,'” Vance told Robert Costa in an interview airing this week on “CBS Sunday Morning.”

“That’s the goal of the policy. And I think we’re very close to achieving that goal. But we still got some wood to chop. We’re going to keep doing it,” he added.

Vance said the deal could “absolutely” come before November’s midterm elections. 

“I think we’re going to know a lot before the midterm elections,” he said. “Look, I think that the deal could happen in the next week, but the deal could also happen months from now.”

President Trump has also suggested a shorter timeline for an agreement, saying early Tuesday that negotiations with Iran were in their “final throes,” with a deal possible in “two or three days.” Later, however, he said Iranians had shot down an Apache helicopter that crashed near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday and vowed that the U.S. would respond.

The two Apache crew members were rescued by a sea drone in the first such operation ever carried out by the U.S. military, officials told CBS News. They weren’t injured in the crash.

Vance told Costa he didn’t believe the Iranians were stringing President Trump along. 

“Again, I think their system takes a long time to reach consensus. I always hear people ask me, ‘Do you trust the Iranians?’ And what the president has said is: ‘I don’t trust anybody. I don’t trust anybody. What I do trust is my own ability to negotiate. I trust our administration’s ability to negotiate, and I trust the enforcement provisions that we’re going to get in place,'” Vance said. 

Watch more of Vice President JD Vance’s interview on “CBS Sunday Morning” on June 14 at 9 a.m. on CBS stations and streaming on Paramount+.