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US Says Russian Cooperation with Iran Should be Viewed as ‘Profound Threat’

A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with the Iranian satellite "Khayyam" blasts off from the launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan August 9, 2022. Roscosmos/Handout via REUTERS
A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with the Iranian satellite "Khayyam" blasts off from the launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan August 9, 2022. Roscosmos/Handout via REUTERS
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US Says Russian Cooperation with Iran Should be Viewed as ‘Profound Threat’

A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with the Iranian satellite "Khayyam" blasts off from the launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan August 9, 2022. Roscosmos/Handout via REUTERS
A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with the Iranian satellite "Khayyam" blasts off from the launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan August 9, 2022. Roscosmos/Handout via REUTERS

Washington said Tuesday that Moscow's growing cooperation with Iran should be viewed as a "profound threat" after an Iranian satellite launched by Russia blasted off from Kazakhstan Tuesday and reached orbit.

"We are aware of reports that Russia launched a satellite with significant spying capabilities on Iran's behalf," a US State Department spokesperson said.

"Russia deepening an alliance with Iran is something that the whole world should look at and see as a profound threat."

Speaking at the Moscow-controlled Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh steppe, Russian space chief Yury Borisov hailed "an important milestone in Russian-Iranian bilateral cooperation, opening the way to the implementation of new and even larger projects."

Iran's Telecommunications Minister Issa Zarepour, who also attended the launch of the Khayyam satellite, called the event "historic" and "a turning point for the start of a new interaction in the field of space between our two countries."

Nasser Kanani, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, said on Twitter that "the brilliant path of scientific and technological progress of the Islamic republic of Iran continues despite sanctions and the enemies' maximum pressure."

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JD Vance Says US at War with Iran's Nuclear Program, Not Iran

Vice President JD Vance, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2025, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP)
Vice President JD Vance, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2025, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP)
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JD Vance Says US at War with Iran's Nuclear Program, Not Iran

Vice President JD Vance, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2025, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP)
Vice President JD Vance, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2025, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP)

Vice President JD Vance said on Sunday the US was not at war with Iran but at war with its nuclear program, adding the program had been pushed back by a very long time due to American strikes ordered by President Donald Trump.

Trump said he had "obliterated" Iran's main nuclear sites in strikes overnight with massive bunker-busting bombs, joining Israel's assault against its Middle East rival in a significant new escalation of conflict in the region.

"We're not at war with Iran. We're at war with Iran's nuclear program," Vance said in an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press with Kristen Welker" show, Reuters reported.

"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."

Vance accused Iran of not negotiating in good faith, which he said served as a catalyst for US strikes. The US had been in diplomatic talks with Iran about Tehran's nuclear program.

Tehran vowed to defend itself while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "gravely alarmed" by the US bombing of Iranian nuclear sites.

"We don't want a regime change," Vance added. "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 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.

Vance said the US "had no interest in boots on the ground."

Trump said on Friday he was going to decide in the next two weeks about direct US involvement in the Israel-Iran war which began with Israel's attacks on Iran on June 13. The war has raised alarm in a region already on edge since the start of Israel's war in Gaza in October 2023.

US ally Israel is the only country in the Middle East widely believed to have nuclear weapons and says it struck Iran to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.

Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while Israel is not.

Many Democratic US lawmakers said Trump's actions were unconstitutional and that it was the US Congress that had the power to declare war on foreign countries.

Vance responded to that criticism by saying Trump had "clear authority to act to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."