JD Vance US-Iran Deal New York Times
Critics of JD Vance think that his key role in the Iran negotiations may end up being an albatross around his neck.
(“If it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming JD,” President Trump said in France this week.)
But in our conversation, the vice president seemed buoyant and eager to play the salesman, insisting that the deal is better than the pact President Barack Obama sealed in 2015.
I asked him about his initial opposition to the war, his conflict with the pope and whether his political future is riding on the success of the Iran agreement. We also discussed Vance’s new book, “Communion,”
Douthat: So let’s start with the most basic question. What is in this deal that is good for America and good for the world that we couldn’t have gotten without three months of military conflict?
The Obama-Iran nuclear deal allowed them to generate a stockpile of enriched uranium. Our deal ensures that stockpile is destroyed and eliminated, so that’s a very, very big difference, a very important difference for the American people. But ——
Douthat: And is that something — the destruction — has it actually been agreed to?
Vance: Correct.
The answer is yes. But it’s not like we sign this thing on Friday and through some act of magic it happens.There has to be a process for doing it.
We have to see that it’s actually happening. And so while the memorandum of understanding, while the peace deal, is, I think, fundamentally good for the American people, a big part of this is verifying, ensuring, they honor their end of the commitment.
Ross Douthat, the host of the “Interesting Times” podcast
New York Times 18 June 2026
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/opinion/jd-vance-iran-trump-communion.html
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