JD Vance, the U.S. vice president, said in an interview with Reuters: “For Iran to meet the United States’ demands and end the seven-month war between the two countries, it must significantly reduce its nuclear enrichment capacity—not just promise to reduce it in the future.”

Addressing officials of the Islamic Republic, Vance said: “If you don’t want nuclear weapons, then why do you need 60% enriched fuel? And if you want to show your commitment to not producing nuclear weapons, don’t produce highly enriched fuel. This is a very simple threshold issue.”

He said the U.S. is still prepared to reach an agreement, “but it will require specific nuclear concessions from Iran.”

Vance added: “We are not supposed to trade words for actions.”

According to him, “one of the factors complicating the situation is that Washington does not know who makes decisions in Tehran.”

Vance said the U.S. is negotiating with Masoud Pezeshkian and Abbas Araghchi, but it is unclear to what extent they have authority within Iran’s power structure.”