Vance Says US–Iran Deal ‘Very Close’ but No Guarantee of Final Agreement

U.S. Vice President JD Vance said on Thursday he felt “pretty good” about prospects for a deal with Iran but cautioned that significant details remain unresolved and that he could not guarantee negotiators would ultimately reach a final agreement.

Vance made the remarks to reporters on May 28 at Joint Base Andrews before departing aboard Marine Two, striking a broadly optimistic tone about ongoing diplomacy that would turn a fragile ceasefire into a more permanent resolution of the ongoing war in the Middle East.

“I think we’re making progress,” Vance said. “We’re getting to a point where we could potentially sit down and settle these issues, but that requires us to make a little bit more progress. I can’t guarantee that we’re going to get there, but right now I feel pretty good about it.”

His comments came as U.S. and Iranian negotiators were reported to have reached a tentative memorandum of understanding that would extend the current ceasefire by 60 days while providing additional time to negotiate a comprehensive agreement.

A U.S. government source confirmed to The Epoch Times that the framework remains subject to final approval by President Donald Trump, who recently struck a hopeful but firm tone on the trajectory of the talks. Trump said this week that negotiations with Iran were “proceeding nicely” but warned that renewed fighting could break out at a level “bigger and stronger than ever before” if the talks collapse.

A successful deal would mark a major step toward ending a conflict that has disrupted energy markets, threatened shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, and raised concerns about a wider regional war.

However, both Washington and Tehran have signaled that obstacles remain.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency on Thursday rejected the notion that a memorandum of understanding had already been finalized.

“Contrary to what some Western sources claim—that the text of the so-called ‘memorandum of understanding’ between Iran and the United States has been finalized and is merely awaiting the two parties’ announcement—this is not true, and the drafting of the text has not yet been completed,” Tasnim said in a post on X, citing sources close to the negotiations.

Details Still Need to Be Worked Out

Vance said talks had moved beyond broad principles and into technical questions that could take time to resolve.

“There are certain details that are going to have to be figured out,” he said. “Even if you come to an agreement on, let’s say, destroying the enriched stockpile, how do you do it? When do you do it? How do you actually get access to it?”

The vice president said that U.S. military operations had left parts of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure difficult to access, particularly Tehran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

“As the President said repeatedly, we did very effectively bury that stuff very deeply underground,” Vance said.

Trump has made Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile a central issue in negotiations. He has publicly rejected proposals that would allow Tehran to transfer the material to Russia or China and instead has insisted that it be surrendered to the United States or destroyed under international supervision.

Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is intended solely for peaceful purposes and has denied seeking nuclear weapons. Senior officials in Tehran have also said that discussions about the fate of Iran’s enriched uranium are not part of the current round of talks.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters earlier this week that the focus of the negotiations with the United States is on “ending the war” and that, “at this stage, we are not discussing the details of the nuclear issue.”

Beyond Iran’s nuclear program and its enriched uranium stockpile, negotiators must also address questions surrounding sanctions relief, frozen Iranian assets, maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz, and regional conflicts involving Iranian-backed groups.

“We’re not there yet,” Vance told reporters Thursday. “But we’re very close, and we’re going to keep on working at it.”