United States Vice President JD Vance has declined to offer a prospective timeline for the end of the US-Israeli war on Iran, which remains a source of surging global energy prices and unpopularity at home. Vance sought to downplay the fallout from the war in a White House news briefing on Thursday. He even questioned how to refer to the conflict.
Right now, there is no active shooting,” Vance said, before clarifying. Still, Vance argued that major combat operations only lasted “about six weeks” and that the US has succeeded in degrading Iran’s defence production capabilities. He also sought to turn attention to the Strait of Hormuz, a focal point of the war, accusing Iran of preventing the flow of traffic through the vital trade route.
You’d have to ask the Iranians.” Prior to the outbreak of war on February 28, traffic flowed freely through the strait. But after the US and Israel launched an initial volley of attacks that month, Iran closed the waterway to commercial vessels, in a blow to the global fossil fuel trade. Roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and gas flowed through the Strait of Hormuz prior to the war.
Vance, however, argued that US military operations against Iran were helping create the conditions for increased oil shipments through the strait. He also asserted that a new deal transferring control of 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves to the US would help lower global oil costs. The answer is it has less effect day by day,” Vance said.
Vance also chided US allies for not doing more to contribute to the war, crediting US President Donald Trump with singlehandedly preventing a larger energy crisis. But he added that he was “extremely sceptical” of accounts about the attack from the Iranian government. We want to know,” Vance told reporters at the White House.
Human rights advocates, however, have pointed out that the US has denied responsibility for past attacks that have killed civilians around the world. Victims have few ways of seeking accountability. The US military has said of the incident that it “never targets civilians”.
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