The United States and Iran announced a preliminary framework agreement intended to end the recent war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and lift the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports. The agreement reportedly includes a 60-day ceasefire period for negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. A formal signing ceremony is scheduled for June 19 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Critics and analysts across the political spectrum, however, have expressed skepticism because many key provisions remain undisclosed. Israeli officials and other observers have raised concerns that unresolved issues — including Iran’s regional proxy networks and the specifics of future nuclear restrictions — have been left for later negotiations.
To get clarity on these matters, Glenn Beck spoke with none other than Vice President JD Vance.
Glenn begins with several frank questions: “How do you negotiate with an apocalyptic, end-times-twelver regime, and what makes you confident that we can, as the president has said on the outset, get no support for proxies, end of the missile program, and no nukes? Do we have those, and how do you lock them in with — to be honest — crazy people that think they’re living in the end times?”
“One of the most important lessons that [Trump] has given me in international negotiation or anything is you don’t trust anybody,” says Vance.
“I don’t trust the words; I don’t trust the commitments, though they have committed to stop funding terrorism and to stop building or buying a nuclear weapon. Those commitments are there, but I trust people’s actions,” he adds.
This philosophy, he claims, underpins the entire peace deal.
“The way that we set up that deal, given the president’s directives, is if they perform the things that they say they’re going to perform, then they get a lot of relief, and if they don’t perform any of those things, then they get nothing,” says Vance, claiming that regardless of how Iran reacts, the United States is still in “a great position.”
“We got the Strait of Hormuz open; oil is now down below $80 today. We have their military still destroyed, their defense industrial base still destroyed, their nuclear program still destroyed,” he declares.
If Iran “[behaves] like a normal country,” the United States will treat it “like a normal country,” he adds, and if it doesn’t, Iran will suffer while the U.S. remains strong.
“The United States still has all the cards, and there’s no skin off our back for entering into this negotiation,” says Vance.
Glenn reiterates his initial question: “And no support for proxies, end of the missile program, and no nukes for sure?”
“Correct, Glenn, and if they don’t do that, they don’t get any of the benefits of the bargain,” Vance confirms.
But as a Christian, Glenn can’t help but wonder about the fate of the Iranian people.
“It is hard to watch a regime slaughter its own people who are — just to use an American term — ‘yearning to breathe free.’ We hoped that we would be able to have, you know, a free people in Iran by the end of this. It doesn’t look like that is part of the plan at all. Can that be done without … regime change?” he asks.
“We’ve given the Iranian people an opportunity here. [Iran’s] military is substantially weaker. I mean it’s effectively gone. … If the Iranian people want to rise up and make, you know, their own country or make their own political future, then obviously the president of the United States would be happy to deal with whatever new government they produce, but we’re not going to force that on anybody,” Vance explains.
“We will empower people on the ground who yearn to breathe free, but we’re not going to force them to … elect their own government. What we’re going to do is pursue our best interests,” he continues.
The U.S., Vance says, entered this war with Iran with clear goals: to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to allow it a “conventional military” that could not “threaten its allies in the region.”
“And that’s what we got,” he states.
To hear more, watch the full interview above.
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The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Jd vance, Iran peace deal, Donald trump, Iran
