Vice President Vance said Tuesday that Iran must do something “meaningful” about its stockpile of enriched uranium if it wants progress in nuclear negotiations with the U.S.
Vance made the remarks in an exclusive interview with Reuters while campaigning for Republican candidates in Alaska. He put the question to Tehran directly.
“If you don’t want a nuclear weapon, then why do you need 60% enriched fuel? And if you want to show commitment to not building a nuclear weapon, don’t build highly enriched fuel. That’s a very basic threshold issue,” Vance said.
“I think if they want to show a commitment to not building a nuclear weapon, they would do something meaningful on their enrichment capacity,” he added.
Iran’s claim that it has a right to enrich uranium has become a key sticking point in the talks over its nuclear program. Tehran insists it is not seeking a nuclear weapon. U.S. officials from both parties counter that the Islamic Republic’s pursuit of highly enriched uranium stockpiles serves only that purpose.
The vice president is a key interlocutor in the negotiations, which have stalled. According to the U.S., the impasse stems from confusion over who holds decision-making power in the Islamic Republic. Tit-for-tat military strikes aimed at asserting control over the Strait of Hormuz have also stood in the way.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry rejected U.S. claims of a leadership crisis and accused the Trump administration of failing to negotiate in good faith.
“The problem is actually the opposite: it lies in the contradictory positions and mixed messaging from US officials,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said at a weekly press conference, according to Reuters.
The U.S. launched the war against Iran on Feb. 28. Its stated goal was to stop the regime from building a nuclear weapon. Iran has since imposed heavy costs on the U.S. and global economies by threatening shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. That maritime route carries about 20 percent of the world’s energy supplies.
Vance told Reuters the U.S. is willing to reach a deal in which Iran commits to not rebuilding its nuclear program. The Trump administration says that program was destroyed in strikes carried out in June 2025.
The vice president stressed, however, that any agreement must rest on concrete steps rather than promises.
“You know, what the president has said is, you know, look, from the very beginning, we’re willing to strike an agreement where the Iranians commit to not rebuilding their nuclear program and take real steps in order to do that, but it takes two to tango, and we’re not going to trade words for actions,” Vance said.
He then explained what that means for the talks.
“In other words, the United States is not going to do things for mere promise of actions on the Iranian side. We need to trade actions for actions here, and we’ll see what the Iranians do,” he said.
Vance’s comments set out a clear threshold for Tehran. If Iran wants to prove it is not pursuing a nuclear weapon, it must act on its enrichment capacity, not just promise to.
