U.S. Vice-President JD Vance has said Iran must make a “meaningful” reduction to its nuclear enrichment capacity if the seven-month war between the two countries is to end.
He said any deal would require Iran to scale back its capacity, rather than simply offer assurances of future cuts.
“If you don't want a nuclear weapon, then why do you need 60 per cent enriched fuel?” Vance said, in an exclusive interview with Reuters. “We're not going to trade words for actions.”
He added that Washington remained open to reaching a peace agreement.
Vance, who is widely seen as the White House's lead negotiator, brokered a provisional peace deal in June, which quickly fell apart.
Vance added that the U.S. was speaking to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, but that it was unclear how much authority they currently hold.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in joint U.S.-Israeli strikes at the start of the war.
“It's not totally clear how their country makes decisions,” Vance said.
U.S. President Donald Trump separately said on Tuesday that his “biggest problem” was that nobody knows who is running Iran.
Tehran rejected the claim. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the problem was “the opposite”, pointing to “contradictory positions and mixed messaging” from U.S. officials.
The two sides have exchanged proposals in recent weeks aimed at ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global energy shipping.
Trump rejected Iran's latest offer and has warned that military operations could intensify after next month's midterm elections.
Vance said Iranian forces can sometimes strike commercial vessels in the strait but are largely unable to stop energy exports. He also dismissed concerns about munitions shortages.
The war, which is estimated to be costing Washington $3 billion a month, has pushed up energy prices and put Republicans on the defensive in competitive U.S. states.
Speaking after a rally in Alaska, Vance urged voters not to let the issue deter them from backing the party.
Asked whether he would run for the presidency in 2028, he said he had not decided. “I'm inherently a procrastinator,” he said.
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Australian counterterrorism authorities are examining the links of the co-pilot accused of attacking the captain and attempting to take control of a flydubai flight bound for Israel. Authorities in New Zealand have also said they are investigating reports the suspect had spent time in that country.
Russia's health watchdog said on Tuesday that no cases of plague had been detected among anyone who had come into contact with a Siberian plague institute laboratory worker who died last week, and locals said their lives had barely been disrupted.
A large Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow and the surrounding region has killed two people, damaged homes and sparked a major fire at a key fuel facility, according to Russian officials and military bloggers.
An Azerbaijani citizen died and another is missing after a cargo ship was attacked by a drone in the Black Sea, near the coast of Romania on Monday, 5 October, Baku's Foreign Ministry has said.
The German-Azerbaijani Connectivity Conference 2026 commenced on 6 October in Baku under the title “Mobilising Finance for Infrastructure, Transport, Logistics, Green Energy, and Digitalisation along the Middle Corridor.”
Israelis mark three years since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, triggering a military assault that destroyed much of Gaza, where conditions remain dire despite a year-old ceasefire that is meant to halt the war for good.
Here's your AnewZ Daily Brief for 7 October 2026. These are the top five things to expect from the CIS summit in Turkmenistan.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will make his debut at an expanded meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Turkmenistan on Wednesday, the Kremlin has said.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) project could become a cornerstone of economic transformation in Armenia and the wider region, while boosting investment and regional connectivty.
Central Asian countries are strengthening sanitary and quarantine controls amid the situation in Russia’s Irkutsk region. Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have introduced preventive measures following the death of an employee of a plague research institute in the city of Shelekhov.
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