JD Vance Gives No End Date For Iran War, Questions Calling It A ‘War’

US Vice President JD Vance has declined to give a timeline for the end of the US-Israeli war on Iran, saying he does not know when Tehran will stop attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

At a White House briefing on Thursday, Vance also questioned whether the ongoing confrontation should be called a war, despite acknowledging that fighting had flared up in recent days. His comments came as the conflict continued to drive up global energy prices and faced growing unpopularity in the US.

“I wouldn’t call it a war. Right now, there is no active shooting,” Vance said, before clarifying. “I recognise there have been places where this has flared up.”

Vance said major combat operations had lasted “about six weeks” and argued that US military action had degraded Iran’s defence production capabilities. According to Al Jazeera, he also focused on the Strait of Hormuz, where the disruption of commercial shipping has become a major concern for global energy markets.

“When you ask, ‘When will this end?’, you’re asking me a question like: When will the Iranians stop shooting at ships?” Vance told reporters.

“I think the reality is, I don’t know the answer to that question. You’d have to ask the Iranians.”

Before the outbreak of the war on February 28, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz flowed freely. After the US and Israel launched their initial attacks that month, Iran closed the waterway to commercial vessels, dealing a blow to the global fossil fuel trade.

Roughly a fifth of the world's oil and gas flowed through the Strait of Hormuz before the war.

Vance argued that US military operations against Iran were helping create conditions for increased oil shipments through the strait. He also said a new deal transferring control of 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves to the US would help lower global oil 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.

According to Al Jazeera, Vance also criticised US allies for not doing more to contribute to the war, while crediting US President Donald Trump and the US military with preventing a larger energy crisis.

“What we’re doing right now is protecting commercial shipping in order to ensure that we don’t have a worldwide energy crisis,” Vance said.

“The only reason we don’t have an energy crisis is because of the leadership of the president but also because of the fine work of our military.”

Questions at the briefing also turned to reported civilian casualties linked to US military action. Vance was asked about a US attack that reportedly struck a wedding party in the coastal Iranian city of Sirik. He said the military was investigating the incident but added that he was “extremely sceptical” of accounts about the attack from the Iranian government.

“We’re investigating it because obviously we care. We want to know,” Vance told reporters at the White House. “When our military makes mistakes, they learn from them to try to get better from them.”

The attack was reported to have killed at least five people, including children, and injured nearly 70 others.

Human rights advocates have pointed out that the US has denied responsibility for past attacks that have killed civilians around the world, leaving victims with few ways of seeking accountability.

The US military has said of the incident that it “never targets civilians”.

The Trump administration has also denied responsibility for an air strike on an Iranian elementary school in Minab that killed more than 150 people, most of them schoolchildren, on the first day of the war.

Evidence reviewed by US media and international observers has suggested that a US Tomahawk missile was used in the attack.

According to Al Jazeera, thousands of people have been killed in Iran since the war began, while deaths have also been reported elsewhere in the Middle East, including Lebanon. As of August, 18 US service members had also been killed and another 750 wounded.

The briefing also brought questions about benefits for the families of fallen US service members. Reporters asked Vance about a report that the widow of a fallen service member was not receiving the full benefits given to families of those who die on active duty.

Libby Klinner, the widow of Air Force Major John “Alex” Klinner, wrote in August that the benefits had been withheld because “we haven’t officially declared war” on Iran.

Vance, himself a veteran, pledged to reach out to Klinner directly after the briefing.

“Our heart breaks for every single person who lost their lives in this operation,” he said.