Vance declines to give timeline for end of Iran conflict, questions if it is a war
US Vice President JD Vance has refused to offer a timeline for the end of the US–Israeli war against Iran, telling reporters at a White House briefing that he would not even call the hostilities a war.
“I wouldn’t call it a war. Right now, there is no active shooting,” Vance said, before adding that he recognised there had been places where the fighting had flared up. He said major combat operations had lasted “about six weeks” and argued that the US had succeeded in degrading Iran’s defence production capabilities.
Pressed on when the conflict would end, Vance said an end would depend on when Iranians stopped shooting at ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital chokepoint for global oil shipments. “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’d have to ask the Iranians,” he said.
Vance argued that US military operations were helping create conditions for increased oil shipments through the strait, which carried roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and gas before the war began in late February. He also pointed to a new US deal to secure control of 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves as a factor that would help lower global energy costs.
“When will the Iranians shooting at ships stop having an effect on world energy markets? The answer is it has less effect day by day,” Vance said, adding that the only reason there was not yet a worldwide energy crisis was the leadership of President Donald Trump and the work of the US military. He chided US allies for not doing more to contribute to the campaign.
Asked about reports that a US strike hit a wedding party in the coastal Iranian city of Sirik, killing at least five people, including children, and injuring dozens more, Vance said the military was investigating the incident. But he said he was “extremely sceptical” of accounts from the Iranian government and stressed that the US never deliberately targets civilians.
“We’re investigating it because obviously we care. We want to know,” Vance told reporters. “When our military makes mistakes, they learn from them to try to get better from them.” Human rights advocates have noted that the US has denied responsibility for past attacks that killed civilians around the world, leaving victims with few avenues for accountability.
The Trump administration has also denied responsibility for an air strike on an elementary school in Minab on the first day of the war that killed more than 150 people, most of them schoolchildren, even as evidence reviewed by US media and international observers suggests the use of a US Tomahawk missile. Thousands of people have been killed in Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East, including Lebanon, since the fighting began, while at least 18 US service members have been killed and 750 wounded as of August.
At the briefing, reporters raised questions about reports that at least one widow of a fallen US service member was not receiving the full benefits given to families of those who die on active duty, because the US has not formally declared war on Iran. Vance, a veteran himself, said his heart broke for every person who lost their life in the operation and pledged to reach out directly to the widow, Libby Klinner, after the briefing.