Vice President JD Vance said Monday that Iran’s leaders have behaved with little apparent strategic logic during the ongoing conflict, accusing Tehran of being willing to disrupt energy shipments through the Strait of Hormuz even when doing so harms countries friendly to Iran.
Speaking in an interview with Fox News, Vance discussed what the war has revealed about Iran’s leadership and the steps being taken by the United States to protect commercial shipping and the movement of oil and gas through the critical waterway.
“I think that what I’ve learned is these guys are really, really, meaning the leadership of the country, they’re really crazy, and they’re willing to do anything, and I think not with a whole lot of strategic wisdom behind it, in order to accomplish as little flow of oil and gas as possible. Now, we expected they would do that, we know that they don’t like us, but what’s odd to me is they will sometimes fire at their own allies, just to prevent the free flow of oil and gas.”
Q: What have you learned about going to war against Iran?
Vance: I think what I've learned is, these guys are really, really crazy. And they are willing to do anything, and I think not with a whole lot of strategic wisdom behind it, in order to accomplish as little flow of oil… pic.twitter.com/uZdjbYylgp
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 31, 2026
Vance also discussed the latest American military operations in the region, saying US forces recently took action after Iran prepared to place mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
“There were strikes last night, of course, and we were responding to the Iranians who were about to lay some mines. And now we’re at a phase where a lot of what we’re doing is actually ensuring the free flow of commerce in the Strait of Hormuz.”
His remarks followed US strikes Sunday against Iranian military targets on Larak Island. The operation reportedly left two people dead and two others wounded and represented the first known American attack inside Iran since late July, when President Donald Trump halted a two-week US military campaign focused on the strategic waterway.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responded to the Larak Island attack by threatening retaliation. The IRGC subsequently fired missiles in the direction of American bases in Jordan.
Trump said Monday that the resumption of US military action against Iranian targets should not automatically be interpreted as the beginning of another full-scale war.
“They are a failed nation… That doesn’t mean we won’t smack them. We will see what happens.”
The president also maintained that shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is functioning well despite the continuing hostilities, pointing to the number of vessels moving through the waterway.
“We have the Strait of Hormuz in extremely good shape. We’ve been averaging 30 ships a night. That’s a lot.”
Trump also touted the results of the renewed American campaign against Tehran.
“We went into Iran, and we are beating the …. out of them.”
Asked who is currently in charge of Iran amid the upheaval inside the country’s leadership, Trump said there appeared to be considerable uncertainty.
“They don’t really know. In my opinion, they don’t know who their leader is.”
Meanwhile, Axios reported that Trump and other senior administration officials are considering additional limited military strikes against Iranian positions around the Strait of Hormuz.
Such operations would reportedly be aimed at stopping Tehran from restoring military capabilities that could once again be used to interfere with commercial vessels and threaten shipping through the strategically vital waterway.
{Matzav.com}
