Washington: Confronted by an intransigent Iranian government that has refused to back down in the face of a massive military campaign, President Donald Trump appears to have settled on a dual-prong approach that combines economic pressure with the potential of a devastating escalation in force.

Having launched "Operation Economic Outcast" just last week to try to isolate Iran from its remaining global trade partners, the Trump administration also resumed strikes in recent days, prompting Iranian retaliation that has renewed concerns of an all-out regional war.

Also Read: Trump says US gave Iran many chances, dismisses value of any deal: Report However, the combination of already intense sanctions on Iran and an off-and-on bombing campaign since the war began more than six months ago has not bowed the Iranian leadership and has left the administration struggling to find a way to wind down the conflict.

Tehran has dug in its heels - to Trump's frustration - as energy prices rise, the global economy roils and poll numbers on the administration's handling of the war dip ahead of November's midterm congressional elections. Trump said Wednesday that he didn't think the conflict would last "much longer," but he again shrugged off suggestions that its unpopularity and high gasoline prices resulting from Iran's chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz would affect the elections for Republicans.

"It doesn't matter. And I'm not affected by the election," he told reporters. "I'm not running. But my party is running, and I'm going to help my party. But I think my party respects the fact that we're not allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon." A regional diplomat briefed on the matter described the current impasse between Tehran and Washington as reflective of both countries' domestic priorities: the midterm elections for Trump and Republicans and the internal crises within Iran.

Also Read: Trump says US campaign against Iran will not continue for ‘too long’ Domestic issues are critical reasons why neither side is willing to blink first, said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations.

The diplomat said negotiations, including those between Iran and Oman or even Iran and the U.S., will not go anywhere without addressing the initial catalyst of war: Israel. And the diplomat was skeptical of the Trump administration's new sanctions plan, saying the threats require more explanation than what the U.

S. has provided so far. Just one branch of an Egyptian bank in the United Arab Emirates has been targeted so far. For actual sanctions to bite, experts agree that they must apply to Iran's main trading partners: mainly China but also India and Russia.

But Trump is loath to target China especially as he is preparing to host President Xi Jinping later this month. Trump also insists that the U.S. has control over the Strait of Hormuz, where one-fifth of the world's oil transited before the war began.

The strategic waterway has been a key pressure point for Iran, and reopening it fully has become one of the prime goals for the U.S. administration. Ship traffic through the strait is well below pre-war levels due to the risk of attack if vessels don't comply with an Iranian vetting regime near its coastline, which is in sharp contrast to the unhindered navigation before the war.

There were 102 transits last week and 126 the week before, according to shipping data company Lloyd's List Intelligence, compared with 130 or more per day before the war. "As President Trump said, the strait is open and all mines have been cleared," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said Thursday.

"The naval blockade remains in full force and effect, and Operation Economic Outcast is underway to sever every remaining economic lifeline sustaining the regime." The White House has repeatedly touted the economic impact that the sanctions have had on Iran, citing its rampant inflation and the massive loss in the value of its currency.

U.S. officials have described Iran's financial system as "one big house of cards." Going forward, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "the price" Iran will pay will be primarily economic, "but we reserve the right ... to take military action when necessary - not just to protect ourselves but to prevent them from being able to threaten others as well.

" "They're going to continue to feel the squeeze," he told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade in an interview that aired Wednesday. Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that he would not characterize the current situation as a "war" but that the administration would respond to any Iranian hostile action.

"Major combat operations are currently not ongoing, and they haven't been ongoing in a very long time," Vance told reporters during a White House briefing. "In fact, what we did just a couple of days ago is that we made it harder for the Iranians to shoot at commercial shipping again in order to ensure the flow of oil and gas into world energy markets.

" President Masoud Pezeshkian is one of the most prominent voices still calling for a negotiated solution. But the hardliners appear to have gained the upper hand, and Iran shows no sign of backing down. Tehran continues to lash out at U.S. interests and allies around the region in response to military strikes.

"This kind of a hybrid approach - the combination of military force, blockade and economic pressure - that is the only option that seems to be available to the United States at this moment," said Hamidreza Azizi, senior Iran analyst for the International Crisis Group.

Still, he said, "it's been for a long time, but now maybe more than ever, a battle of endurance between the two sides." Amr Hamzawy, director of the Middle East program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, pointed to two main reasons for the deteriorating situation.

"One, none of the two parties is satisfied with the outcome - meaning that the current situation does not serve U.S. interests well, and it does not serve Iranian interests well," Hamzawy said. The other reason is how leaders from both sides are perceived at home.

"The Trump administration is afraid of being portrayed in the U.S. as an administration that failed to end a military campaign successfully, and that's going to impact the midterm elections," he said. "And the Iranians, especially the Revolutionary Guard, are quite afraid of appearing as if they are submitting to U.

S. sanctions with no actions on their side, which might hurt them domestically." (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel) Having launched "Operation Economic Outcast" just last week to try to isolate Iran from its remaining global trade partners, the Trump administration also resumed strikes in recent days, prompting Iranian retaliation that has renewed concerns of an all-out regional war.

Also Read: Trump says US gave Iran many chances, dismisses value of any deal: Report However, the combination of already intense sanctions on Iran and an off-and-on bombing campaign since the war began more than six months ago has not bowed the Iranian leadership and has left the administration struggling to find a way to wind down the conflict.

Tehran has dug in its heels - to Trump's frustration - as energy prices rise, the global economy roils and poll numbers on the administration's handling of the war dip ahead of November's midterm congressional elections. Trump said Wednesday that he didn't think the conflict would last "much longer," but he again shrugged off suggestions that its unpopularity and high gasoline prices resulting from Iran's chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz would affect the elections for Republicans.

"It doesn't matter. And I'm not affected by the election," he told reporters. "I'm not running. But my party is running, and I'm going to help my party. But I think my party respects the fact that we're not allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon." A regional diplomat briefed on the matter described the current impasse between Tehran and Washington as reflective of both countries' domestic priorities: the midterm elections for Trump and Republicans and the internal crises within Iran.

Also Read: Trump says US campaign against Iran will not continue for ‘too long’ Domestic issues are critical reasons why neither side is willing to blink first, said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations.

The diplomat said negotiations, including those between Iran and Oman or even Iran and the U.S., will not go anywhere without addressing the initial catalyst of war: Israel. And the diplomat was skeptical of the Trump administration's new sanctions plan, saying the threats require more explanation than what the U.

S. has provided so far. The Trump administration's economic isolation of Iran is off to a slow startThe administration's new push for Iran's economic isolation was announced with great fanfare last week and a dire warning for all remaining countries to cut off financial and trade ties with Iran or face U.

S. retaliation - but the campaign so far has fallen flat. Just one branch of an Egyptian bank in the United Arab Emirates has been targeted so far. For actual sanctions to bite, experts agree that they must apply to Iran's main trading partners: mainly China but also India and Russia.

But Trump is loath to target China especially as he is preparing to host President Xi Jinping later this month. Trump also insists that the U.S. has control over the Strait of Hormuz, where one-fifth of the world's oil transited before the war began.

The strategic waterway has been a key pressure point for Iran, and reopening it fully has become one of the prime goals for the U.S. administration. Ship traffic through the strait is well below pre-war levels due to the risk of attack if vessels don't comply with an Iranian vetting regime near its coastline, which is in sharp contrast to the unhindered navigation before the war.

There were 102 transits last week and 126 the week before, according to shipping data company Lloyd's List Intelligence, compared with 130 or more per day before the war. "As President Trump said, the strait is open and all mines have been cleared," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said Thursday.

"The naval blockade remains in full force and effect, and Operation Economic Outcast is underway to sever every remaining economic lifeline sustaining the regime." The White House has repeatedly touted the economic impact that the sanctions have had on Iran, citing its rampant inflation and the massive loss in the value of its currency.

U.S. officials have described Iran's financial system as "one big house of cards." Going forward, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "the price" Iran will pay will be primarily economic, "but we reserve the right ... to take military action when necessary - not just to protect ourselves but to prevent them from being able to threaten others as well.

" "They're going to continue to feel the squeeze," he told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade in an interview that aired Wednesday. Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that he would not characterize the current situation as a "war" but that the administration would respond to any Iranian hostile action.

"Major combat operations are currently not ongoing, and they haven't been ongoing in a very long time," Vance told reporters during a White House briefing. "In fact, what we did just a couple of days ago is that we made it harder for the Iranians to shoot at commercial shipping again in order to ensure the flow of oil and gas into world energy markets.

" Combining military force and sanctions on Iran 'is the only option,' one analyst saysComplicating things for the U.S., Iran's leadership has shown signs of divisions between moderates more open to a diplomatic solution and hardliners who want to press ahead with a more confrontational approach.

President Masoud Pezeshkian is one of the most prominent voices still calling for a negotiated solution. But the hardliners appear to have gained the upper hand, and Iran shows no sign of backing down. Tehran continues to lash out at U.S. interests and allies around the region in response to military strikes.

"This kind of a hybrid approach - the combination of military force, blockade and economic pressure - that is the only option that seems to be available to the United States at this moment," said Hamidreza Azizi, senior Iran analyst for the International Crisis Group.

Still, he said, "it's been for a long time, but now maybe more than ever, a battle of endurance between the two sides." Amr Hamzawy, director of the Middle East program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, pointed to two main reasons for the deteriorating situation.

"One, none of the two parties is satisfied with the outcome - meaning that the current situation does not serve U.S. interests well, and it does not serve Iranian interests well," Hamzawy said. The other reason is how leaders from both sides are perceived at home.

"The Trump administration is afraid of being portrayed in the U.S. as an administration that failed to end a military campaign successfully, and that's going to impact the midterm elections," he said. "And the Iranians, especially the Revolutionary Guard, are quite afraid of appearing as if they are submitting to U.

S. sanctions with no actions on their side, which might hurt them domestically.

Washington (AP) — Vice President JD Vance on Thursday rejected the use of the word “war” to describe the U.S. fighting with Iran as he steered clear of predicting that the six-month-old conflict would be over by November's midterm elections, in which Republicans are trying to hang on to their narrow majorities in Congress..

“I wouldn’t call it a war,” Vance said after being asked during a White House press briefing about whether the fighting could be wrapped up before voters cast their ballots in the Nov. 3 congressional elections. “Right now, there is no active shooting.

” Vance's assertion came even as Iran fired at U.S. Gulf ally Kuwait on Thursday as it continued to retaliate for rounds of U.S. strikes on Iran earlier in the week. The vice president said the U.S. had a “responsibility” to carry out this week's strikes because Iran continues the targeting of commercial vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Vance's attempt to minimize the intensity of the fighting illuminates the difficult task at hand for Trump and his administration as he tries to persuade American voters to keep Republicans in control of Congress, even as the unpopular conflict — one the White House said at its outset would last a matter of weeks — has driven up gas prices and left consumers grappling with higher inflation.

Vance said he didn’t want to set “artificial timelines." “But when you ask, ‘When will this end?’ You’re asking me a question like, ‘When will the Iranians stop shooting at ships?’” Vance said. “I think the reality is, I don’t know the answer to that question.

You would have to ask the Iranians.” The administration in July faced scrutiny after it reclassifiedfour fallen soldiers as well as dozens of wounded troops in its Defense Casualty Analysis System, which Pentagon officials have repeatedly pointed to as the definitive source on the numbers of dead and wounded from the conflict.

Those killed or wounded in fighting after a brief ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran fell apart were classified in a new category called “Overseas Operations” after initially being tallied in the totals from the war. White House insists more oil is getting out of Gulf, but prices remain high Brent crude prices hovered above $95 per barrel on Thursday.

The international benchmark was around $72 per barrel the day before the conflict began. Still, Trump and his aides have sought to push that the U.S. Navy is in control of the Strait of Hormuz, which accounted for about 20% of the flow of the world's oil prior to the start of the war.

They insist a near pre-war level of Gulf oil is now making its way out of the critical waterway. Vance at Thursday's press briefing said the U.S. escorted about 15 million barrels of oil on Wednesday. This is after Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC on Wednesday that 17 million barrels were carried through the strait on Monday with assistance from the U.

S. Navy. About 20 million barrels of Gulf oil flowed through the strait prior to the start of the war. But ship traffic through the strait remains well below pre-war levels, according to independent firms that track marine traffic.

There were 102 transits last week and 126 the week before, according to shipping data company Lloyd’s List Intelligence, compared with 130 or more per day before the war. Over the past 28 days, 5 million barrels a day have exited the strait on average, according to TankerTrackers.

com. Other recent estimates have varied from 2 million barrels per day to 6 million barrels per day. Trump has tried to soothe volatile markets Over the course of the war, Trump has repeatedly reported progress in negotiations or called off threats of military action at the last moment when global markets have become jittery.

And markets have reacted swiftly to his public signals of peace or hints of progress. “The administration is still jawboning oil markets,” said Rosemary Kelanic, Middle East director at Defense Priorities, of the administration's claims of dramatically increased flowsof oil.

“And they appear to be doing it again to keep prices from going too high, so that they can extend the timeline before there’s a worse price spike.” With Iran's refusal to back down in the face of the U.S. military campaign, Trump has settled on a dual-prong approach that combines economic pressure with threats of an escalation in force, if necessary.

Trump has consistently emphasized that the campaign launched by the U.S. and Israel has been devastating for Iran’s navy and air force. Iranian officials have said the country has suffered $270 billion in direct and indirect damage. Israeli military strikes in the first weeks of the war wiped out much of the theocratic government’s leadership structure, including its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Still, Iran has found leverage through its own strikes on the strait and Gulf allies of the United States.

But the administration has sought to make the case that the waterway will become less important by the day, even as it asserts that more oil is getting through. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a Fox Business interview this week that the Strait of Hormuz will become a “worthless piece of water” within two years as new land pipelines planned for the region bypass the energy chokepoint.

Trump himself took to social media on Thursday to highlight a news report about Syria's effort to transform the port of Baniyas on the Mediterranean coast into a westward route to international markets for Gulf exporters. Meanwhile, Iran and Oman have recently held talks to discuss a phased approach to jointly managing ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump settles into holding pattern before midterms, analysts say The administration maintains it's making progress economically choking off Iranian hardliners, including the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. At the moment, it would be a leap for Trump to agree to any plan that puts Iran in position to claim control of the strait, analysts say.

“I find it hard to believe the president would agree to anything that hands back any modicum of IRGC control over the strait that has been wrested away,” said Richard Goldberg, who served as a senior adviser on Iran policy in Trump's first administration.

Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Iran does not appear ready to “let Trump out of the box” despite the massive pain being inflicted on its economy. At the same time, Miller said, Trump seems to have settled into a holding pattern ahead of the midterms — one in which he avoids both a return to the full-throttle bombardment of Iran and making any accommodations to Tehran on the Strait of Hormuz.

“The White House doesn't want a massive war, and they don’t want to be seen as offering massive concessions,” Miller said. “The tack they are taking avoids both of those things.” —- AP writers Jonathan J. Cooper and Josh Boak in Washington and David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, contributed reporting.

US Vice President JD Vance stated that negotiations with Iran are suspended until alleged attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz cease, while Iranian officials describe their efforts to circumvent a reported US naval blockade. Iran’s first vice president warned that Tehran’s potential response to US military actions would be "asymmetrical" and "multi-layered.

" These developments were reported in September 2026, though independent verification of the blockade and specific shipping attacks remains limited.

LONDON, September 4. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump is convinced that his country’s victory over Iran is at hand. In US president's words, "we have already won, because they can’t get a nuclear weapon," he told GB News in an interview. "I did the right thing," the US leader continued, adding that when Washington launched its military operation against the Islamic Republic, Iran was "two weeks may be four weeks away from having a nuclear weapon.

" Now Iran has been thrown 25 years back, Trump added. Besides, Trump assured that the US operation against Iran is a success, and his country now controls the Strait of Hormuz. The US and Israel launched a war against Iran on February 28. In June, Washington and Tehran, with Islamabad acting as mediator, signed a memorandum of understanding providing for an immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including in Lebanon.

However, in the early morning hours of July 8, the US resumed large-scale strikes against Iran, accusing it of violating the terms of the agreements reached on the Strait of Hormuz.