IN BRIEF
- US President Donald Trump is reportedly weighing whether to declare the conflict over.
- Iran says it struck US bases in Kuwait and the UAE after blaming the US for a deadly wedding strike.
US vice president JD Vance has said he would not categorise the Iran conflict as a war, despite continuing clashes with Iran six months after the start of hostilities.
Vance's comments came amid growing signs that US President Donald Trump is trying to draw a line under the conflict that has bogged down his administration.
"I wouldn't call it a war. Right now, there is no active shooting," Vance told a White House briefing when asked if the war would be over by US midterm elections in November.
Vance added that "I recognise there have been places where this has flared up" but said major combat operations only lasted for six weeks after the war started on 28 February when the US and Israel launched strikes.
"But when you ask when will this end, you're asking me a question like when will the Iranians stop shooting at ships? I think the reality is I don't know the answer to that question. You would have to ask the Iranians," he said.
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After several weeks of calm, fresh clashes began with US raids on Sunday, deepening the impasse in the six-month war, as Iran maintains a stranglehold on the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Vance insisted that the US would not reopen talks with Iran until it ended attacks on commercial shipping.
But with fuel prices threatening to cost Trump's Republicans their control of Congress at the ballot box, his administration has begun pushing the message that oil flows through the waterway are now returning to pre-war levels.
Wedding strike probe
"Their control over the Strait of Hormuz is effectively gone," Vance said of Iran.
"If you go back three months ago, how much oil and gas was coming out of the strait under Iranian threats? It was virtually nothing. Now, it's almost back to where it was before the conflict even started."
Trump's approval ratings are near record lows as the president who vowed to keep the United States out of any more foreign wars finds himself in a quagmire with the Islamic republic.
Eighteen US troops and thousands of people in Iran and Lebanon have died in the conflict since February.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was now discussing with senior aides about whether to declare the Iran war over.
He posted a photo of a banner saying "Mission Accomplished" last week.
Iran pressed on with fresh attacks on Thursday, saying it hit US military bases in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates to avenge a strike on a wedding that it blamed on Washington.
Vance said the United States was probing the wedding strike but cast doubt on Iranian reporting of the incident.
"I know that we're investigating," Vance said.
"I will say that the Iranian state media has not been a very good scribe about what's happened in the conflict thus far. So I'm extremely skeptical of this."
The Iranian Red Crescent said the missile attack on the wedding in the Iranian coastal town of Kuhestak killed four people late Tuesday, including a child, and wounded more than 50.
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