Introducing DC Insider - your guide to what's rocking Washington, rattling the White House and setting tongues wagging on Capitol Hill. Sign up HERE. See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred SourceBy PHILLIP NIETO, US POLITICAL REPORTER Published: 13:01 BST, 1 July 2026 | Updated: 14:16 BST, 1 July 2026
Donald Trump is secretly weighing a return to war with Iran, with JD Vance letting slip that the White House sees the peace negotiations as little more than a chance to refill the world's oil stocks.The President has held secret talks recently with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and General Daine Caine on resuming full-scale attacks on the Iranian regime, according to the Wall Street Journal.The classified conversations with Trump have centered around what some officials call 'finishing the job.'Trump, however, is also worried that such an attack would permanently derail efforts to reach a deal to dismantle Iran's nuclear program. He is reportedly open to letting negotiations extend beyond the August 18 deadline if progress is made with the regime.Trump has said he is satisfied with ordering temporary strikes on Iran whenever it violates the ceasefire. That policy sparked back-and-forth fighting over the Strait of Hormuz this weekend, threatening to destroy the negotiations.The Vice President, meanwhile, revealed in an interview that Trump's talks with the regime are motivated by the US desire to refill the world's oil supply rather than long-term peace with Iran.'I think what the President has told us to do is use this MOU to sort of refill the world's oil economy, to refill some stocks. And then to see where the hand is,' Vance said on The Michael Knowles Show. The President has apparently held secret talks with his Defense Secretary and General Daine Caine on resuming full-scale attacks on the Iranian regime. Above, with JD Vance Meanwhile, the Vice President revealed in an interview that Trump's negotiations with the Iranians are motivated by the US desire to refill the world's oil supply rather than long-term peace The regime has warned that any violation in Iran would be treated as a violation of the entire ceasefire, and that the US and Israel would face the 'consequences' of their actions The classified conversations with Trump have centered around what some officials call 'finishing the job.' Above right, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and General CaineVance noted that Trump is weighing two options: a long-term deal requiring 'a significant change in Iranian behavior,' or 'banking our wins' from the previous strikes.The Vice President added that the second option would include 'doing things on top of that if the president feels that we have to,' referring to renewed strikes. The violence erupted last week after Iran unleashed a swarm of one-way suicide drones on US-backed cargo ships traversing the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that carries roughly one-fifth of the world's oil supply.The US military responded by destroying Iranian missile and drone storage locations as well as radar sites along the Persian Gulf.'Violence will be met with violence...there were attacks on commercial vessels that the United States of America, directed by the President, responded to,' Leavitt said.In upcoming negotiations, US diplomats are demanding that the regime abandon its nuclear ambitions and hand over its stockpile of enriched uranium.Iran wants to jointly control the Strait of Hormuz as well as for the US to unfreeze billions in frozen assets in the Middle East.Since the war began, Iran has been able to close the Strait of Hormuz by deploying speedboats, drones and sea mines.The Daily Mail has contacted the White House for comment.
