Vance: US Wants to Turn Over 'a New Leaf' With Iran

Humongous challenges, but this will have global peace and I must at this point in time with the fullest sincerity at my domain Thank President Donald Trump for his visionary and very dynamic leadership, which has resulted in this meeting here today in the beautiful city of Bergenstock, and I think here we are going to have wonderful discussions Which will lead to hopefully very productive results in times to come. I'd like to thank Vice President Jerry Warren for his very able leadership leading United States team and my very dear brother Prime Minister of Qatar. He's like a very real and dear brother, and of course Field Marshal Shri Das Munir, his outstanding role very consistent and he showed huge amount of perseverance and patience and I think together all these efforts have culminated here in this wonderful showiness Bergen, and it's really very wonderful to be here, and hopefully when we go back to our homes, we'll have some wonderful paper in our hand which will promote peace, progress, and prosperity around the globe. Thank you very much Vice President, would you like to say something? Well, I'll say just a few words here and first of all, I have some notes of appreciation. First of all I want to thank the President of the United States who sends his best to all the great leaders assembled here because he's empowered us to find a diplomatic resolution to a host of issues that matter to the American people but I think the world. The opening of the Strait of Hormuz, the ending of the Iranian nuclear program, all of these things have already been accomplished. The question before us now is how much more can we accomplish together? Can we turn over a new leaf? Can we change relations in the Middle East permanently or do we go back to doing things the old way, which is not our preference but it's certainly very much something that can happen. I have a few other notes of appreciation. First of all to the Prime Minister of Pakistan dear friend of the President's, a dear friend of mine, a guy who has been with his leadership and his very careful and skilled negotiation has got us to this point. To his Field Marshal in Pakistan, Asim Muneer. I will say that since Field Marshal Muneer welcomed us with the Prime Minister in Islamabad, I have joked that I have two very very important people in my life, an Indian and a Pakistani. The Indian is my wife and the Pakistani is Field Marshal Muneer and I probably talked to Field Marshal Muneer more than I've talked to anybody else over the last three months. I would not be here without his statesmanship. He is a military leader, but I think he's shown himself to be a great diplomat and of course who's an amazing friend of the United States of America, but has been also an important part of getting us to this point. I think it's it's important for the American people, but people all over the world to appreciate that what's brought us to this moment the President's leadership and the President's willingness to see a Middle East that is much different ten years from now than it was ten years ago. And what we're trying to accomplish here is very simple. Through diplomacy, through working together to transform the Middle East where Iran and the Gulf have been at war with each other or at least have had very unfriendly relations. Iran has been a driver of regional instability. Now we see a future where everybody can work together to promote peace and prosperity for everyone. What we have already seen it back home in the United States is lower gas prices. We've seen the free flow of oil and gas. We've seen peace and now we're trying to build on that to see if we can build something even better and more sustainable for the future. This is a historic meeting. Never before outside of Islamabad and here, so outside the last few months, never before has the Iranian and American leadership met at such a high level. What the President has asked us to do is turn over a new leaf to transform our relationship with the people of Iran and to extend an outstretched hand that says to the people of Iran that if your leadership is willing to give up being a driver of regional instability, if they are willing to give up nuclear weapons ambitions for the long term, then the United States is willing to fundamentally transform our relationship with that country. That is certainly our goal. We've already made great progress over just the last few hours and I expect that we'll make additional progress in the hours to come. Well, first of all, I would like to welcome you here, Mr. Vice President, Mr. Prime Minister. Your leadership and Field Marshal leadership actually initiating that process, that's what brought us here today. I think that every one of you has highlighted how important is this meeting, how historic is that event, and how significant is that agreement, not only on the security of the region, but also for the security of the world and for the global economy. What we have done and what we have achieved, we wouldn't achieve it without the dedication and the hard work that was done by you, Mr. Vice President, and Mr. Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Prime Minister and Field Marshal, and also on the Iranian side, Dr. Ghalibaf and Dr. Araghji. I would like to thank all of you for your leadership and determination that put us in this room. This is not really the main celebration, our celebration when we reach the ultimate agreement. Hopefully, this is just the beginning, and I wish everyone all the best. Qatar will stay dedicated to this partnership to support these mediations until the end, until we reach a solution. We will always be a partner in bringing more peace, prosperity, and hopefully a better future for our region. Thank you very much. Thank you, guys. We'll take just a couple of questions and then we're gonna have to kick out the media and get started with the hard work. Go ahead. Well, first of all, we've seen great progress over the last just couple of days in ensuring that the ceasefire holds in Lebanon. These things are always a little bit messy. If you go back to how much was happening three months ago and compare it to three weeks ago, great progress has been made. If you go back to three weeks ago to three days ago, additional progress has been made. The President has committed us to see a full regional ceasefire. We found great partners in working with the Qataris, the Pakistanis, our friends in Israel. We're all working towards regional peace. There, of course, are going to be sometimes disagreements about precisely how to get there, but I actually feel great about where we are in Lebanon. There's still some additional wood to chop, but we're going to keep on working at it. The question over here. Alignment. Israel has something like genocide in Lebanon. The main issue is stopping this. Well, ma'am, I think that the President of the United States and the United States of America have done more to stop the conflict in Lebanon than any government anywhere in the world over the last few months, and we're going to keep on working towards it. As I think a lot of you appreciate, peace is never easy. Peace always requires a little bit of work. It always requires a little bit of give and take, but the President of the United States is committed not just to peace between the United States and Iran. The President is committed to a regional peace, which is why we're here working so hard to settle our issues. The one last comment I want to make is what today really represents is the beginning of a technical negotiation that's not going to solve every disagreement, but it's going to allow us to sit together as teams for the first time really in history to figure out what matters most to the respective parties, to settle those issues, to solve those issues, and get to a better tomorrow. The reason why the political leadership of the respective countries is here is because we wanted to, first of all, set up the structure for these technical negotiations, and second of all, make sure our teams have our full support and know they can always call on us to break through any barriers. We've got a lot of work to do. We're excited to do it. Thank you all for being here.