Vice President JD Vance cast doubt on reports that the Strait of Hormuz would once again close on Saturday — just hours before the Iranian military announced the supposed closure.
“So, I’m skeptical of that reporting, or at least of some of the conclusions that could be drawn from it,” Vance told “Fox & Friends Weekend.” His comments came after The Wall Street Journal attributed the closure to renewed Israeli attacks in Lebanon. The New York Times then confirmed news of the Iranian military’s decision later in the day.
“So right now the Strait of Hormuz, a 20-mile waterway that is a choke point for all this oil and gas, we know those Straits have a lot of mines in them,” Vance said. “Like I said just now, we got 16 million barrels out of the Strait of Hormuz in just the last 24 hours. That is basically to where it was before the war even started. And so that suggests that the Straits really are open.”
Vance then attributed a potential closure to a country other than Iran. “Now what I would believe is that if a ship was going near a minefield, either our Navy or somebody else’s Navy, there are a lot of countries other than Iran who are in the region, might say, ‘No, don’t go there, because there are mines there.’”
He continued: “But no, we’re not seeing any evidence that the Iranians are still closing down the Strait of Hormuz. It is going to take some time to clear those mines though.”
Per the Times, the “naval arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said if ships approached the strait, their security would be at risk.”
The news organization also noted the U.S. Central Command spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins denied via text that Iran had closed the strait. He wrote, “The strait is open and the U.S. blockade against Iran has ceased.”
Vance also noted that he plans to join U.S. special envoy for peace Jared Kushner and U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff for in-person negotiations with Iran, despite not having a firm grasp on what the pair are attempting to accomplish.
“I expect that I will leave sometime the next couple of days, but you know, it’s always a delicate coordination dance and the diplomatic protocols,” he said. “I’ve got to be honest with you, I don’t really understand these things. I’ve never been a particularly into diplomatic protocols.”
The VP concluded, “My attitude is: Let’s get on the ground and actually fix these problems, but they want to do a delicate dance. The Qataris and the Pakistanis want to make sure that we do this in the right way. So I’m trying to be respectful given my position of the last year and a half. I have to care about diplomatic protocols all of a sudden.”
President Trump, meanwhile, offered his own update Saturday on Truth Social.
“There will be NO TOLLS in the Hormuz Strait for 60 days during the Cease Fire Period, and there will be NO TOLLS after the 60 day period has expired, unless they are imposed by and for the United States of America, should the deal not be completed,” he wrote, “for services rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East for purposes of both past, present, and future reimbursement of costs.”
