Vice President JD Vance said at a conference in Washington on Wednesday that Iran can have a “civil nuclear program” but not a “nuclear weapons program,” offering yet another confusing signal about the Trump administration’s position on Iran’s nuclear capabilities as negotiations with the Islamic Republic are set to enter their fourth round this weekend. 

Several Trump administration officials have in recent weeks offered competing messages about the goal of the ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran. Vance’s comments come days after President Donald Trump said the outcome of the negotiations must be “total dismantlement” of Iran’s nuclear program. 

U.S. officials including Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff have each shared divergent views on whether a potential nuclear deal would require the Islamic Republic to abandon its entire nuclear program or if it can keep enriching uranium for civil nuclear purposes. Vance’s remarks, at the Munich Security Conference’s D.C. confab, suggested that the White House believes Iran does not need to entirely give up its nuclear program. 

“Our proposition is very simple. We don’t care if people want nuclear power. We’re fine with that,” said Vance. “But you can’t have the kind of enrichment program that allows you to get to a nuclear weapon, and that’s where we draw the line.” 

Vance said the negotiations will end with “Iran eliminating their nuclear program,” before he seemed to stop himself and clarify that he meant only their “nuclear weapons program.” 

“This is going to end somewhere, and it will end either in Iran eliminating their nuclear program — their nuclear weapons program. They can have civil nuclear power, OK? We don’t mind that,” said Vance. 

He praised the status of the negotiations, saying the Iranians have been responsive to American demands. 

“So far, so good,” Vance said. “We’ve been very happy by how the Iranians have responded to some of the points that we’ve made.” 

The 2015 Iran deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, allowed Iran to maintain some level of nuclear enrichment, which was one of the reasons many foreign policy hawks opposed the deal. Witkoff said last month that Iran should be able to enrich uranium to 3.67%, the same level that the JCPOA allowed. But he walked that back the following day, saying Iran must cease all nuclear enrichment. 

A couple weeks later, Rubio told The Free Press that Iran should be allowed to have a civil nuclear program if they import enriched material, but he said it would be “problematic” for them to continue enriching uranium themselves. 

In his remarks in Washington, Vance described the “issues” with the 2015 JCPOA. He did not say that Iran’s ability to enrich uranium, as preserved by the deal, was one of them. He called out the weak enforcement mechanisms and what he said was Iran’s ability to retain a “glide path” to a nuclear weapon. 

“Number one, the enforcement or the inspections regime was incredibly weak, and I don’t think that it actually served the function of preventing the Iranians from getting on the pathway to a nuclear weapon,” Vance said. “Second, yes, we believe that there were some elements of their nuclear program that were preserved under JCPOA that, yes, they weren’t nuclear weapons — Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon — but [it] allowed Iran to sort of stay on this glide path towards a nuclear weapon if they flip the switch and press go.”