Vice President JD Vance tried to downplay the war, saying it’s not a war at all, while speaking to reporters at the White House.
“I wouldn’t call it a war. Right now, there is no active shooting. I recognize there is — there have been places where this is flared up, major combat operations,” Vance argued.
“Again, major combat operations lasted for about six weeks. And since then, we destroyed, of course, their nuclear facilities with Midnight Hammer. With Epic Fury, we destroyed their defense industrial base for producing weapons. And also a lot of their conventional military. And then we made it harder for them to rebuild that nuclear program,” he continued.
Pressed on when this will end, Vance put the onus on the Iranians saying they need to stop shooting at commercial ships, but he notably did not say what the plan is to get Iran to stop shooting.
“I think the reality is, I don’t know the answer to that question. You would have to ask the Iranians. When will the Iranians shooting at ships stop having an effect on world energy markets?” he said.
“What we’re going to do is not depend on the Iranians behaving responsibly or negotiating in good faith. What we’re going to do is use the tools that we have at our disposal to ensure that the American people, one, never have to deal with the threat of an Iranian nuclear program and to the world, energy markets are properly supplied,” he said.
Vance repeatedly refused to put any kind of timeline on this conflict.
“The United States is the only country with the capability to ensure that those oil and gas ships get to market. Well, what I would say is it would be irresponsible for us to write out our strategy and our timeline for an Iranian nation that simply cannot honor its commitments and cannot stop shooting at commercial ships,” he said.
-ABC News’ Mary Bruce
