US VP JD Vance warned Iran that it will be denied access to benefits, including frozen assets, under a new MoU unless it complies fully and changes its behavior. He called it a “win-win” for the US if Iran transforms its relationship in the Mideast.
US Vice President JD Vance on Thursday issued a stern warning to Iran, threatening that the nation will be denied access to any benefits, including its frozen assets, under the digitally signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) unless they “comply fully and change their behavior.”
‘A Win-Win Situation’
Addressing a presser at the White House, Vance said that compliance with the peace deal will provide Iran a “transformative relationship” in the Middle East, hailing it as a “win-win situation” for the US. “You really have a win-win situation for the United States of America. If they do change their behavior, then they are going to have a transformative relationship with the Middle East, and the Middle East will have a transformative relationship with the people of Iran. That’s a win for the American people and for the president of the United States,” Vance said.
Asserting that Iran’s military and nuclear program has been destroyed in the conflict, Vance said that US President Donald Trump has put Iran in an “incredibly weakened position,” noting it as an opportunity to change their behaviour. “I’ve seen skeptics of the deal, people say, ‘the Iranians will never change their behavior!’ Well, maybe that’s true, and if so, they don’t get ANY of the benefits of the bargain–but isn’t it worth trying? Isn’t it worth seeing whether this incredibly weakened position that US President has put the Iranians under… motivates them to change their behavior?,” he said.
The US Vice President reaffirmed that upon non-compliance with the peace deal, Iran will be left with a “destroyed” defence and nuclear capabilities and frozen assets. “If the Iranians don’t change their behavior, their military and their nuclear program is still destroyed. The simple fact is that the only way the Iranians get any of those resources — not a single penny, by the way, from the U.S., under any circumstances — is if they comply fully and change their behavior,” he said.
Trump on Credibility of US Financial System
Earlier, US President Donald Trump defended the return of frozen Iranian assets as part of the evolving diplomatic process with Tehran, arguing that permanently withholding another country’s funds could undermine global confidence in the US dollar and the international financial system.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in France, Trump said that the United States had frozen significant Iranian assets. “The unfreezing… we have taken a lot of their money. And we have their money. We have taken their money, it’s not our money, it’s their money. And we froze it. At a certain point in time, I guess we’re going to have to give it back. You know, if we didn’t give it back, nobody would ever invest in the dollar again,” Trump said.
The President suggested that while retaining the funds might appear attractive from a political standpoint, doing so could have long-term consequences for the credibility of the US financial system “I thought about it. I’m not the most perfect person. I said, ‘What if we keep their money? What the hell are we giving it back to them?’ But people from lots of nations, some nations we don’t agree with, they have their money, the dollar’s become very strong under me, and they don’t want to have a little conflict with somebody and end up having the United States just take their money,” Trump stated.
“So if you do that, you really don’t have a system,” he added
Details of the US-Iran MoU
The remarks come as US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian virtually signed a 14-point memorandum of understanding (MoU) aimed at ending hostilities between the two countries, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and launching a 60-day process to negotiate a final agreement on sanctions and Iran’s nuclear programme.
According to CNN, the US will make fully available for use the frozen or restricted funds and assets of the Islamic Republic upon the implementation of this MoU. Both nations will mutually agree on the procedures related to the release of these funds during negotiations.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)