The Trump administration has gone into damage control after JD Vance appeared to get snubbed at his summit with Iran.
The vice president was in Switzerland for peace deal talks on Sunday when cameras showed him being bypassed by Qatari Prime Minister Sheik Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who warmly greeted the leader of the Pakistani delegation, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Footage of the incident led to assessments that Vance, who had attended the negotiations with Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, had been given the cold shoulder by his counterparts at the Lake Lucerne Summit.
However, in an identical statement to The Daily Wire and the New York Post, an unnamed White House official said it was “complete nonsense” that Vance had been snubbed.
“The U.S. delegation had just spent hours with the Qataris, and there was no need to re-greet someone having just spent hours with them,” they said. “The decision to give statements together before meeting was done impromptu, which is why it wasn’t a staged greeting.”
Reports also suggest that Iranian officials, led by Tehran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, issued a separate snub to Vance ahead of the talks.
The Iranians were in the room while the U.S., Qatari, and Pakistani delegation leaders spoke to the press before beginning the talks, however the New York Post reported that they then pulled out of a photo opportunity with the vice president.
Footage has also emerged of Araghchi hugging Pakistan’s Sharif as Vance watched on from the corner.
The same U.S. official didn’t see it that way.
“Iranian representatives previously agreed to a press availability at the beginning of the meeting,” the U.S. official said, questioning the claims from Iran.
“They even brought state media with them to cover it, who were pre-staged at the event. Despite this, they left the meeting upon seeing the volume of press in attendance and then distributed an inaccurate account of the situation through state media.”
Ahead of the talks, Vance had struck an upbeat tone.
“I’m looking forward to starting the technical talks with the Iranians, the Pakistanis, and the Qataris,” he said Saturday.
“We’re going to hopefully make progress on the nuclear issue, make progress on the Lebanon ceasefire issue—those are the two big things that I think we’re going to be focused on.”
Vance suffered a humiliating blow the day before the summit, when he told Fox News, “No, we’re not seeing any evidence that the Iranians are still closing down the Strait of Hormuz. It is going to take some time to clear those mines, though.”
However, as he spoke, Iran closed it.
His peaceful sentiment came as Trump undermined Vance’s messaging from far away.
“We may take over the Strait if we have to. I’ll blow the s--t out of them,” Trump told Fox News.
The Daily Beast has contacted the vice president’s office for further comment.
