US: We Are at War with Iran Nuclear Program, Not Iran

June 22—As the U.S. braced for an Iranian response to yesterday's bunker-busting attacks on three of Iran's nuclear enrichment sites by U.S. B-2 bombers, sources report that they are hoping Russia and President Vladimir Putin will use their offices as Iran's most important ally to urge Tehran to act with caution and ultimately seek a fair negotiated settlement to the crisis.

"We're not at war with Iran. We're at war with Iran's nuclear program," Vice President JD Vance said in an interview on NBC's Meet the Press with Kristen Welker this morning. "I think that we have really pushed their program back by a very long time. I think that it's going to be many, many years before the Iranians are going to be able to develop a nuclear weapon."

Sources close to the White House report that Russia and President Putin have been in touch with all parties in this crisis, which was escalated by the US attack yesterday, for which President Donald Trump claimed total success. Russia, in its response from its Foreign Ministry, spoke of the U.S. violation of the UN Charter and reiterated that military action cannot resolve the crisis, urging restraint from all sides.

Contrasts in U.S. and Israeli Strategies

While the Iranians vowed to respond with a terrible blow to be felt by the United States and its Israeli ally—whom it said had been at war with Iran since launching attacks on Iranian nuclear sites July 13—Israel has escalated beyond the U.S. limited strikes. Unlike the U.S. attacks, which were limited to three nuclear sites, Israel has attacked Iranian military and civilian infrastructure, bombed Tehran mercilessly, and assassinated Iranian military leaders and nuclear scientists.

"They are hoping that Iran will limit its response to an American military target," said a source close to the White House, who stressed that Putin will be meeting with Iranian civilian leaders in Moscow tomorrow, which may have something to do with the timing of the Iranian response. "However, the White House remains concerned about the existence of Iranian-directed buried terror cells within the United States and fears that the fanatics within the Iranian command might unleash one or more of these for attack."

Trump Rejects Full-Scale War, Seeks Deal

"It should be noted that Trump, in his design of the attack, has been kept under restraint," said a source, noting that he had rejected requests from his lunatic messianic ally, [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Bibi Netanyahu, to join Israel in its crusade against Israel's biblical enemy. There's a huge difference here: Bibi wants to destroy Iran, Trump does not—he is only after the nuclear program. And he wants to do that without putting U.S. boots on the ground.

And this is where Bibi and his British/NATO sponsors have laid a trap for the President: it may not be possible to do that without troops on the ground mopping things up. The counter to that: Get a negotiated settlement, as he sought and as the Russians can help make happen. There are many things in play now.

White House Messaging and Legal Authority

"We don't want a regime change," Vance said on Meet the Press. "We do not want to protract this... We want to end the nuclear program, and then we want to talk to the Iranians about a long-term settlement here." Vance said the U.S. "had no interest in boots on the ground."

Vance said Trump made the final decision to strike Iran right before the strikes took place and that Washington has received some "indirect" messages from Tehran since the strikes. Sources report that the President made the decision to strike after he was told by his Special Envoy to the region, Steve Witkoff, that he had reached the outlines of a totally workable deal with the Iranians, with Russian help—only to have the deal rejected by Ayatollah Alim Khamenei.

Vance also countered members who claimed that under the War Powers Act, Trump had no authority to launch a war against a country that had not attacked the United States without Congressional approval. Vance said the President had "clear authority to act to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction." The intelligence estimate used by Bibi to justify his war claimed that Iran was at best "days or weeks away" from having a bomb and has been challenged by the U.S. intelligence community. That report is supposedly based on human intelligence—i.e., agents that Israel has placed inside the Iranian nuclear program.