BUDAPEST, HUNGARY – APRIL 7: U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks at a joint press conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on April 7, 2026 in Budapest, Hungary. Vance is supporting Orban’s bid for reelection in Hungarian parliamentary elections scheduled for April 12. (Photo by Jonathan Ernst – Pool/Getty Images)
Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Vice President JD Vance has said the Iran ceasefire is a “fragile truce.”
The ceasefire, announced Tuesday, halted attacks on the country for two weeks and triggered a relief rally in global markets.
Speaking in Hungary, Vance said Wednesday that Iran’s foreign minister had responded well to the ceasefire but others in the country had been “lying” about the agreement.
“This is why I say this is a fragile truce,” he said. “You have people who clearly want to come to the negotiating table and work with us to find a good deal, and then you have people who are lying about even the fragile truce that we’ve already struck.”
Vance, who has been campaigning for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s re-election, said the U.S. had “clear military, diplomatic and, maybe most importantly, we have extraordinary economic leverage” over Iran.
“The President has told us not to use those tools. He’s told us to come to the negotiating table. But if the Iranians don’t do the exact same thing, they’re going to find out that the President of the United States is not one to mess around. He’s impatient. He’s impatient to make progress,” Vance added.
U.S President Donald Trump threatened earlier this week that a “whole civilization will die” without a deal for a ceasefire. He warned Iran had to either cut a deal or face massive strikes on its civilian infrastructure.
Vance added: “What the president set out to do was decimate the Iranian military, decimate their ability to wage conventional war. And that military objective … has been achieved.”
He continued: “Because of that, what the president did is he basically issued an ultimatum to the Iranians. He said, ‘open up the streets, stop trying to hold the world’s economy hostage, and we’ll engage in a ceasefire.’ And that’s exactly the agreement that we came to last night.”
