Vance: The United States will continue to exert economic pressure on Iran to prevent it from rebuilding its nuclear facilities

On August 21, United States Vice President Vance stated: “If we can increase enough oil and gas supplies to allow energy prices to decline while Iran is punished for attacks on commercial ships, this will put a great deal of economic pressure on Iran and change their consideration of future negotiations — for example, what kind of agreement they want to reach, and what kind of relationship they want with the United States.” He said: “We are now entering a new phase in which the most effective instrument is to exert economic pressure on Iran. It is a delicate game, but the past few weeks have shown that they are under much greater pressure than we are. We will continue to maintain that pressure, because we think it is the most effective way.” Vance added: “We must go back to the beginning of things. The President had stated that Iran could not possess nuclear weapons. Now their nuclear facilities had been destroyed, but the question was whether they would try to rebuild them. Thus, fundamentally, we are working to create a new reality — not only so that we can say with confidence that their nuclear facilities have been destroyed, but also so that they will never try to rebuild them.”