US Vice President JD Vance has said the conflict with Iran will enter a "much different phase" within a couple of months, telling the New York Post in an exclusive interview that he agreed with Donald Trump's assessment that the war would wind down soon after the American midterm elections.
Speaking aboard Air Force Two on Monday, Vance said Iran continued to lose its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, with traffic through the critical oil chokepoint now back above half of pre-war levels.
He described the conflict as unfolding in two stages, telling the outlet that destroying Tehran's nuclear programme, chemical weapons and its ability to project power had already been achieved, while the next phase would focus on preventing Iran from rebuilding and on restoring wider regional stability.
Vance rejected suggestions that Washington was escalating the conflict, saying the US was not engaged in aggressive operations, though he acknowledged Iranian forces were still intermittently firing at commercial shipping, mostly without success.
According to the report, US Navy SEALs have cleared mines from large stretches of the strait over the past four months, though shipping remains depressed, only 11 vessels transited the waterway in a 24-hour period, against a pre-war average of 130, per shipping trackers cited by the report.
Around a fifth of the world's seaborne oil passes through Hormuz.
Washington has degraded much of Iran's missile and drone capability, but Tehran continues to strike shipping and American bases in the region, the outlet reported.
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Trump has also linked Iranian drones to a recent attack on Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline.
The US has separately targeted Iranian oil tankers and sanctioned banks linked to the regime.
Vance had helped broker a mid-June memorandum of understanding that produced a ceasefire to allow nuclear negotiations, though it remains unclear whether Trump will intensify strikes after the midterms or whether Tehran will prove more willing to negotiate.
Trump told reporters last Wednesday that oil prices would fall sharply once the election had passed.
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