2026-08-16T04:01:29.158Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/16/politics/trump-team-shifting-iran-goals
特朗普政府在从伊朗战争中抽身时面临的最大难题之一，是总统唐纳德·特朗普及其团队最初设定的一系列绝对化目标清单。
这些目标曾包括伊朗彻底投降、政权更迭、伊朗永远不会拥有核武器，以及终止德黑兰对真主党等中东代理组织的支持。
随着这场战争如今已进入第六个月，相关目标清单明显出现了明显调整且被大幅缩减。近期，副总统JD·万斯以一种引人注目的方式进一步缩减了目标，最新迹象表明，该政府可能正准备退而求其次——甚至可能大幅让步。
周四在福克斯新闻台亮相时，万斯被问及这场战争可能如何结束。他提出了两个目标。
“第一是确保海湾国家继续向全球经济输送石油和天然气，以此维持能源价格稳定，”他补充道：“这是首要目标：让全美各地的美国人都能用上便宜的石油和天然气。”
“其次，显然第二个目标是确保伊朗永远不会拥有核武器。”
这与该政府此前的目标清单截然不同，万斯对目标的排序尤其引人注目。
周五被问及万斯的言论时，白宫新闻秘书卡罗琳·莱维特坚称，“这两个目标对总统而言同等重要。
该政府几乎一直将伊朗永远不会拥有核武器列为首要关切。
即便在政府眼中两个目标确实同等重要，将石油和天然气价格——而非其他议题——纳入考量本身就是一次显著的转向。
事实上，特朗普早在今年5月就明确拒绝将这一点列为目标。当时被问及在试图结束战争时是否会考虑美国人的经济状况，特朗普回应称：“半点儿都不会。”他暗示核不扩散问题至关重要，其他因素都无需纳入考量。
（特朗普周五也重申了这一立场，称鉴于伊朗问题事关重大，美国人多花点钱买汽油，他“永远不会为此道歉”。）
我曾在3月撰文指出，该政府经常列出的战争目标共有四项——但不同发言人给出的四项目标往往存在差异。
例如，部分清单包含终止对代理组织的资助，而另一些则没有；部分提及摧毁伊朗的导弹基础设施，其他清单则省略了这一点；部分提到解除伊朗空军和海军的武装，而另一些仅提及海军。
当时的情况仿佛是政府在实时调整目标清单。
但关键在于，这些清单中从未包含降低美国国内石油和天然气价格这一条。
鉴于霍尔木兹海峡在战争爆发前就处于开放，因此这一目标或许可以被解读为恢复战前现状，而核不扩散才是唯一需要实现的新目标。
事实上，政府内部一些人如今将低油价列为首要目标，这似乎是放松原定目标的最新迹象，预示着这场战争即将结束，而结果远未达到特朗普最初的目标。
到了5月，政府不再强调某些目标已是不争的事实。
到6月，特朗普政府与伊朗达成的谅解备忘录，几乎未提及此前美国核心关切的目标。
在过去两个多月里，特朗普多次发表言论，听起来像是可能缩减其核要求。
此前政府曾强调伊朗需要交出其浓缩铀，而特朗普如今谈及，伊朗的核计划和核材料或许已遭受重创，且深埋地下无法获取。这位总统还谈到，美国政府可以通过太空监测，确保伊朗不会试图回收这些材料。
他甚至声称伊朗已经实现了无核化。
换言之，特朗普的表态听起来很像一个清楚自己可能无法迫使伊朗接受极具限制性的核协议的人。
他的政府将能源价格为“首要目标”——即便特朗普本人并非如此——与政府正符合其逐渐放弃原定强硬目标的进程。
如果恢复战前现状如今真的是“首要目标”，这足以说明这场战争几乎没有取得任何成果。
JD Vance and the Trump team keep moving the goalposts on Iran
2026-08-16T04:01:29.158Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/16/politics/trump-team-shifting-iran-goals
One of the Trump administration’s biggest problems in extracting itself from the Iran war is the list of very absolutist goals that President Donald Trump and his team laid out.
The goals have included complete Iranian surrender, regime change, Iran never getting a nuclear weapon and ending Tehran’s support for its Middle East proxy groups like Hezbollah.
As the war — now in its sixth month — has dragged on, this list of goals has conspicuously shifted and been pared back. And Vice President JD Vance appears to have pared it back recently in a remarkable way, offering the latest indication that the administration might be preparing to settle for less — maybe even a lot less.
Appearing on Fox News on Thursday, Vance was asked how the war might end. And he laid out two goals.
“It’s ensuring that the Gulf countries continue to send oil and gas to the world economy so that we have energy price stability,” he said, adding: “That’s goal number one: Keep oil and gas cheap for Americans all over our country.
“And then, obviously, goal number two is ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.”
This is not the administration’s old list of goals — and the order Vance placed them in is striking.
When asked about Vance’s comments on Friday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt maintained that “both goals are equally as important to the president.”
The administration has almost always characterized Iran never getting a nuclear weapon as the overriding concern.
And even if the goals are truly equal in the administration’s mind, including oil and gas prices at all — and not other items — is a notable shift.
In fact, Trump explicitly rejected this as a goal back in May. When asked if he considered Americans’ financial situation when trying to resolve the war, Trump responded, “Not even a little bit.” He signaled that denuclearization was so important that he didn’t factor in anything else.
(Trump echoed that line on Friday, saying he would “never apologize” for Americans paying a little more for gas, given the stakes in Iran.)
I wrote in March about how the administration frequently listed four goals for the war — but how the four goals frequently differed depending upon who was speaking.
Some lists included ending funding for proxy groups, for example, while others did not. Some mentioned destroying Iran’s missile infrastructure, while others omitted that. Some mentioned getting rid of Iran’s air force and navy, but others only mentioned the navy.
It was like the administration was workshopping the list in real time.
But the key point here is that none of those lists included keeping oil and gas prices low in the United States.
And given the Strait of Hormuz was open before the war started, that particular goal could just be read as a return to the pre-war status quo — with denuclearization being the only goal that would represent a new achievement.
Indeed, the new emphasis on low gas prices from some in the administration seems like the latest sign of relaxing the goals to prepare for a conclusion to the war that comes up well shy of Trump’s initial aims.
By May, it became clear the administration was no longer going to emphasize certain goals.
By June, the Trump administration entered into a memorandum of understanding with Iran that barely mentioned previously central US goals.
And for the last two-plus months, Trump has been saying things that sounded a lot like he might scale back his nuclear demands.
While the administration previously emphasized Iran turning over its enriched uranium, Trump’s spoken about how perhaps enough damage was done to its nuclear program and its nuclear materials are buried too far underground to be accessed. The president has also talked about how the US government could simply monitor from space to make sure Iran didn’t try to retrieve them.
He’s even claimed that Iran was already denuclearized.
In other words, Trump sounded a lot like a guy who knew he might not be able to cow Iran into accepting a really restrictive nuclear deal.
His administration talking about energy prices as “goal number one” — even if Trump isn’t — would fit neatly with this progression away from the hard-and-fast goals that the administration set out to achieve.
If a return to the pre-war status quo really is “goal number one” right now, that says a lot about how little this war has accomplished.
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