Vice President JD Vance says economic pressure is the United States’ “most effective tool” against Iran, describing the current standoff as “a delicate dance” in which both sides are applying pressure.
Speaking on a podcast, Vance said: “what has been true over the last couple of weeks is they felt a lot more pressure than we have.”
His comments come after President Donald Trump announced what he called “the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country” against Iran. Trump also threatened severe financial penalties on any nation that helps Tehran evade sanctions, adding that “this will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale.”
Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, told an event in Baghdad on Friday that Muslim countries must make a plan to overcome “cruel” sanctions, according to a government summary of his comments.
Vance acknowledged that U.S. pump prices remain elevated, but claimed they have come down “substantially” because the U.S. has managed to get “a lot of oil and gas out” of the Strait of Hormuz with the help of its military.
Ship traffic through the strait remains low, however. Kpler data shows 10 crossings on Monday and two transits on Sunday, compared with an average of about 130 ships a day before the war.
The vice president said Iran’s main leverage was access into the strait, adding: “If we can, not even get it back to where it was before, but if we can get enough oil and gas out to give some Americans some ease at the pumps, some ease on energy prices.”
He said Iran was being punished for shooting at commercial ships and that the U.S. would make sure Iranian forces are not able to do that. “I think we’ve been quite successful,” he claimed, echoing Trump’s Truth Social post that described Iran as already “on the ropes.”
“Do they want to have their economy strangled for the rest of time, or do they want to have a better relationship with the West? That’s always been the option that the president has put to these guys,” Vance said.
