US VP Vance says Iran war 'will end immediately after the election' - report

US Vice President JD Vance said the war with Iran will enter a “much different phase in a couple of months” in an interview with The New York Post on board Air Force Two on Monday.

Vance told The New York Post that Iran would continue to lose control of the Strait of Hormuz until after the US midterm elections, set for November. The vice president stated that the global energy chokepoint had “returned to well over 50% of normal traffic.”

“We can’t predict the future, but I think the president is right to say that this thing will enter a much different phase in a couple of months,” Vance said. “He’s also the commander in chief, so he’s the person who determines… when conflicts start and when they stop.”

In the interview, Vance addressed growing fatigue among US citizens over the war, which has reportedly cost taxpayers $33.4 billion since February.

“I certainly understand there’s some impatience from the American people, but fundamentally what’s happening now is that the United States is not engaged in aggressive operations. We’re just not.”

Traffic through the strait still remains low despite US efforts

The US and Iran have been engaged in tit-for-tat strikes, as Iranian military forces have fired on commercial shipping vessels attempting to exit the strait.

Despite US naval efforts to de-mine the strait over the last four months, crossings remain far below pre-war levels, when roughly 20% of global oil supply passed through.

US military operations have destroyed much of Iran’s missile and drone capabilities, but the regime is still striking commercial vessels and launching attacks on US bases in the Middle East, with a total of 18 US servicemen and women killed since the start of the conflict.

Vance told reporters the that the US operations in the Middle East had to be understood in two phases.

“The first phase was to destroy the nuclear program, destroy their conventional military, destroy their ability to project power in a way that they were able to even a couple of years ago.”

“And then the second phase of this is to ensure that they’re not able to rebuild and try to maintain as much global stability in the wake of that,” he added.

The vice president helped to orchestrate the Memorandum of Understanding along with Pakistani negotiators in mid-June. The MOU initiated a cease-fire to pursue negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program and begin disengagement procedures for the conflict.

Echoing Vance’s outlook on the end of the war, Trump told reporters on Wednesday that  “right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward.”

“I think the war will end immediately after the election because they can’t hold out any longer,” he added.