‘I Wouldn’t Call it a War’: Vance Downplays Iran Conflict

The Administration is now pursuing what amounts to a strategy of intermittent military force combined with sustained economic pressure. Last week, it announced “Operation Economic Outcast,” an effort to further isolate Iran from its remaining trading partners. But the campaign has so far produced limited results, and imposing sanctions aggressive enough to cripple Iranian trade could require confronting countries including China, India, and Russia.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week that the Administration expected the principal pressure on Iran going forward to be economic, while reserving the right to use military force when necessary.

Trump himself has resumed publicly encouraged Iranians to challenge the regime, writing on Truth Social on Tuesday, “When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?”

When asked by TIME on Thursday whether the Trump Administration was considering arming Iranian dissidents or providing them with other direct assistance, Vance declined to provide more details. “Everything that could happen is on the table: economic pressure, military pressure, diplomatic pressure, covert pressure,” he said. “Of course, these are tools in the President’s toolkit.”