‘I wouldn’t call it a war,’ says JD Vance on ongoing conflict with Iran

Vice President JD Vance on Thursday disputed whether the ongoing US conflict with Iran was still a war, saying major combat operations ended after about six weeks. On being asked during a White House news briefing if the war would be over by the midterm elections in November, Vance said, “I wouldn’t call it a war. Right now, there is no active shooting. I recognize there have been places where this has flared up.”

The vice president further said that major combat operations ended after about six weeks.

“When you ask, ‘When will this end?’ You’re asking me a question like, ‘When will the Iranians stop shooting at ships?’ I think the reality is I don’t know the answer to that question. You would have to ask the Iranians,” Vance said.

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‘No negotiations until Strait of Hormuz attacks stop’

Vice President Vance further said that the US would not negotiate with Iran while attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz continue.

“The president’s been very clear: We’re not talking to them, and we’re not going to talk to them unless they stop shooting at commercial shipping,” Vance said during the news briefing.

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‘Gas could have been much, much higher’

On being asked when Americans would expect lower gas prices and could expect to pay less at the pump, Vance said the US has been able to avert a global energy crisis from Iran’s attacks in the Strait of Hormuz.

“We’ve been quite successful up to this point,” Vance said. “Gas, frankly, could have been much, much higher were it not for our efforts, but I’m not going to make a promise about when it’s going to return to $3.”

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The vice president said the US was fighting Iran so it wouldn’t be able to have a nuclear weapon. He argued that the energy crisis from the war with Iran could have been much worse if it hadn’t been responded to effectively.

‘Extremely skeptical about hitting Iran wedding’

The Vice President further said that he was “extremely skeptical” of the Iranian allegations that the US hit a wedding party during strikes earlier this week.

Iranian officials said four civilians were killed and dozens more were wounded in the attack. The US military said it was looking into the allegations.

“I will say that the Iranian state media has not been a very good scribe about what’s happened in the conflict thus far, so I’m extremely skeptical of this,” Vance told reporters.

He reiterated what the US military has been saying, which is that civilians are not targeted.

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“Unfortunately, obviously, sometimes things happen, but in this particular case, I don't think that we have any information one way or the other,” Vance said. “We’re investigating it because obviously we care, we want to know.”

‘Oil flow through Hormuz nearly back to pre-war levels’

Vance went on to say that the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz was nearly back to levels seen before the Iran war, adding that Tehran’s control of the waterway was “effectively gone”.

“If you go back three months ago, how much oil and gas was coming out of the strait under Iranian threats? It was virtually nothing. Now, it’s almost back to where it was before the conflict even started,” the VP said.

Vance also downplayed the threat of Iranian cyberattacks in America and said that Iran’s ability to disrupt the daily lives of Americans was “not zero, but it’s quite limited.”

“What I would say is that we feel quite confident the homeland is safe,” he said. “We also feel quite confident that the Iranians are going to try to do a lot of things that they don’t have the capability to do.”

He added that the Trump administration’s stated goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon was of top importance.