Vance: "The Iranians don't give up their right of self-defense"

Vice President JD Vance on Thursday defended letting Iran keep its large arsenal of ballistic missiles as part of the preliminary deal, saying it was impossible to tell any country they were not allowed to maintain their right to self-defense.

"Countries don't give up the right of self-defense. Israel doesn't give up the right of self-defense if Hezbollah fires rockets or drones at Israel. The Iranians don't give up their right of self-defense in their country," he said at a briefing. "But we do expect that as part of the final deal they are not going to be able to build the kind of missiles that can broadly threaten the entire world."

U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, said at the start of the war that eliminating Iran's ballistic missile program was a key objective.

"You can't tell a country, whether Israel or Iran, that they're not allowed to have any self-defense," the vice president said.

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