Vice President JD Vance insisted Sunday that the United States is at war with Iran’s nuclear program, not the country, following Saturday’s attack.

President Donald Trump ordered strikes on three nuclear facilities in Iran on Saturday, sparking fears of U.S. involvement in another wide war in the Middle East.

Recommended Stories

• Hegseth says congressional leaders told of US attack on Iran after planes 'were safely out'
• Pentagon details B-2 mission 'Operation Midnight Hammer' targeting Iranian nuclear sites
• WATCH LIVE: Hegseth speaks at Pentagon after US strikes Iranian nuclear facilities

“We’re not at war with Iran,” Vance told NBC News. “We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program.”

The vice president said that in the hours since the attack, the administration had “received some indirect messages from the Iranians.”

The U.S. attack came after Israel earlier this month launched strikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran launched retaliatory attacks against Israel, and the two countries have been exchanging air and missile attacks for nearly two weeks.

Vance noted that the U.S. is not seeking a regime change in Iran, only destroying the country’s nuclear capabilities.

“Our view has been very clear that we don’t want a regime change. We do not want to protract this or build this out any more than it’s already been built out,” Vance said. “We want to end their nuclear program, and then we want to talk to the Iranians about a long-term settlement here.”

Vance declined to confirm with absolute certainty that Iran’s nuclear sites were completely destroyed. Trump had said Saturday night that Iran’s nuclear facilities were “completely and totally obliterated.” 

When asked if he had “100% confidence that Iran’s nuclear sites were totally destroyed,” the vice president said he believes the U.S. has “substantially delayed” Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon.

“I’m not going to get into sensitive intelligence about what we’ve seen on the ground there in Iran, but we’ve seen a lot, and I feel very confident that we’ve substantially delayed their development of a nuclear weapon, and that was the goal of this attack,” Vance said.

U.S. intelligence had said it had not concluded that Iran had decided to develop a nuclear weapon. Trump, however, said Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was “wrong” in the intelligence community’s assessment, though Gabbard in recent days has claimed Iran could produce nuclear weapons “within weeks.”

HOW THE US BUNKER-BUSTER BOMB WORKS

Vance claimed the U.S. attack set back Iran’s nuclear program significantly.

“We have really pushed their program back by a very long time. I think that it’s going to be many, many years before the Iranians are able to develop a nuclear weapon. But, again, our goal is that they’re never able to develop a nuclear weapons program,” he said.