Trump says ‘backup plan’ not needed for Iran talks; wishes Vance ‘luck’

President Trump said Friday that no backup plan is needed if the peace talks in Pakistan between the U.S. and Iran go south.

“You don’t need a backup plan,” Trump told reporters before departing Washington. “The military is defeated. Their military is gone. We’ve degraded just about everything.”

Vice President Vance is flying to Pakistan with special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner to discuss a lasting deal with Iran after agreeing to a two-week ceasefire earlier this week.

The ceasefire is already on rocky ground over misinterpretations, like whether Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon should be part of the ceasefire. Iran and Pakistan’s prime minister say it was part of the deal, while Israel and the Trump administration say it was not.

Trump told reporters that he wishes Vance “luck” in the meetings.

“He’s got a big thing,” he said.

The president also said the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil shipping waterway, will be opened “with or without” Iran and that he won’t allow Iran to toll ships going through.

Trump had said the ceasefire was contingent on whether the strait remained open.

Still, not many ships have passed through, leaving oil prices high.

“I think it’s going to go pretty quickly, and if it doesn’t, we’ll be able to finish it off,” he said. “One way or the other, it’s going well.”

“The Navy’s gone. The Air Force is gone. All anti-aircraft is gone. The leaders are gone. The whole place is gone,” he added. “So, we’ll see how it turns out.”

The president’s lack of a backup plan feeds into the uncertainty swirling around the exit strategy for the Iran war.

Since the war began in late February, his administration has offered varying timelines for its end and varying objectives.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said previously that this is “not endless nation-building under those types of the quagmires under [former Presidents] Bush or Obama.”

But when Witkoff was asked last month how he sees the war ending, he said, “I don’t know.”

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