Washington: US President Donald Trump said that he personally believes Iran was responsible for the attempted attack on a FlyDubai flight, even as Vice President JD Vance said he had not seen anything conclusive linking Tehran to the incident.

The two leaders also addressed a separate suspected threat in Britain that prompted the United States to move bombers from a military base, with both pointing towards possible Iranian involvement.

Asked directly whether Iran was responsible for what a reporter described as the terrorist attack involving FlyDubai, Trump said: “I do; I personally do.”

Trump did not provide evidence during the exchange to support his assertion.

Vance, questioned separately about the FlyDubai incident and possible Iranian involvement, was more cautious.

“That’s something I defer to John Ratcliffe and some of the intelligence folks on,” Vance said, referring to the CIA director.

“I don’t want to get ahead of any announcements there, but it’s certainly something we’re looking at but I wouldn’t say I’ve seen anything conclusive just yet,” he said.

Vance also said the incident had prompted scrutiny of procedures involving foreign pilots in the United States.

“We’re certainly looking at our procedures within the United States to make sure that people who are obviously flight risks are not getting behind the wheel of an airplane,” he said.

The Trump administration appeared more confident about a separate suspected security threat in Britain.

Trump confirmed that a threat had prompted the movement of US bombers.

“Yeah, I think we can say that. I mean, they didn’t fly out by accident, yeah,” Trump said when asked whether there had been a specific threat.

“No, but there were some threats and, rather than tempting the enemy, we’ll capture the enemy and beat the enemy. But why should we leave them there? So, we moved them around a little bit, not very far.”

Asked later about the possibility that Iran had brought combat drones into Britain and whether that prompted the decision, Trump said: “I can’t tell you that but if they did, they’ll suffer greatly.”

He said the United States knew who was responsible for the threat.

“So, we had a threat and if we’re going to be threatened, we’ll just move them and that sort of alleviates that. And we actually know the people that made the threat and they’ve got themselves a big problem,” Trump said.

Asked whether they were linked to Iran, he replied: “They would be linked to Iran.”

Vance separately indicated the administration had greater confidence about Iranian activity surrounding the UK security threat.

“We do feel with some confidence that the Iranians are you know, they’re trying to do what the Iranian state has done for 49 years, which is engage in acts of terrorism against the United States and against a lot of other people as well,” he said.

“So we are being extremely cautious and that’s all I’d say about that.”

Despite the warnings, Trump left open the possibility of diplomacy with Tehran. Asked whether he was open to direct talks with Iranians, Trump replied: “Yeah, always.”

Trump also reiterated his position on Tehran’s nuclear ambitions while discussing energy markets and attacks on Russian refineries.

“And oil prices are coming down and here’s the nice part — Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,” he said.