Iran also rejected Trump\u2019s claims about its missile program as big lies
\n WASHINGTON
\nUS Vice President JD Vance told Iran Wednesday to take Washington\u2019s threats of military action \u201cseriously,\u201d a day after President Donald Trump appeared to build the case for war in his State of the Union address.
\nAs US forces mass in the Middle East, Trump claimed in his speech to Congress on Tuesday that Iran was seeking to develop missiles that can strike the United States.
\nTrump also accused the Islamic republic, whose negotiators will meet US officials in Geneva on Thursday, of having \u201csinister nuclear ambitions\u201d and working to rebuild a nuclear program that was targeted by US strikes last year.
\nVance told Fox News that while Trump was going to try to \u201caccomplish it diplomatically,\u201d the US president also had the \u201cright\u201d to use military action.
\n\u201cYou can\u2019t let the craziest and worst regime in the world have nuclear weapons,\u201d said Vance.
\n\u201cThe president has a number of other tools at his disposal to ensure this doesn\u2019t happen. He\u2019s shown a willingness to use them and I hope the Iranians take it seriously in the negotiations tomorrow because that\u2019s certainly what the president prefers.\u201d
\nHis comments came as the United States announced fresh sanctions targeting Iran, pressing on with what Washington calls its \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d campaign.
\nIran\u2019s President Masoud Pezeshkian earlier struck an upbeat tone, saying there was a \u201cfavorable outlook\u201d for the negotiations as his Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his team left for Switzerland.
\nIran also rejected Trump\u2019s claims about its missile program as \u201cbig lies.\u201d
\nBut while Trump said he preferred a diplomatic solution, he also set out what appeared to be the justifications for possible military action in the first State of the Union address of his second term.
\nIt was the same forum in which then-president George W. Bush laid out the case for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iran also rejected Trump\u2019s claims about its missile program as big lies WASHINGTON US Vice President JD Vance told Iran Wednesday to take Washington\u2019s threats of military action \u201cseriously,\u201d a day after President Donald Trump appeared to build the case for war in his State of the Union address. As US forces mass in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-533715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n