WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that he doesn’t think of the US conflict with Iran as “a war” due to the lack of full scale fighting — while saying that China is “willing to play ball” with US efforts to sever Tehran’s economic ties to achieve a peace deal.
“I wouldn’t call it a war. Right now, there is no active shooting,” Vance said at a White House press briefing.
“I recognize there have been places where this has flared up. Major combat operations… lasted for about six weeks.”
The vice president’s downplaying of the conflict comes as Republicans fret the ongoing fighting could hurt them in the midterm election, particularly if gas prices stay high.
Vance said that he was unsure when the conflict would end — as President Trump tries to negotiate its conclusion after initially projecting the more than six-month war would last about four weeks.
“Let’s say I told you three months. Say I told you three days,” the VP added.
“Okay, and then the Iranians start blowing up oil and gas ships, and the United States is the only country with the capability to ensure that those oil and gas ships get to market… It would be irresponsible for us to write out our strategy and our timeline for an Iranian nation that simply cannot honor its commitments.”
Vance said that he believes that China, which is one of Iran’s most important trading partners, is willing to cooperate with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s Operation Economic Outcast to use financial isolation as a way to pressure the Islamic Republic.
“You do have, I think, the Chinese, the PRC, being willing to play ball here,” Vance said at the briefing.
“I’m not saying they’re doing everything that we’ve asked them to do, but I think that the PRC has been much more responsible, certainly than the Iranians, and much more responsible than a couple of other nations as well.”
China’s ability to help will likely be a main topic of conversation when President Xi Jinping visits the White House toward the end of month.
Xi had a brief meeting with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian at the annual gathering of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization last week, Iranian media reported. Chinese media made no mention of it.
The low-key brush-off was seen as a way of China keeping Iran at arm’s distance before Xi’s high-profile meeting with President Trump.
China has been the largest buyer of Iran’s sanctioned oil exports, but those flow through the Strait of Hormuz and have fallen sharply since the war began, resulting in Beijing tapping into its massive oil reserves.
