Economic, military, diplomatic or covert pressure? Vance on Trump's toolkit for dealing with Iran

JD Vance keeps US plans for Iran ‘private’ US Vice President JD Vance on Thursday said the Trump administration has several options for dealing with Iran, ranging from economic and diplomatic pressure to military and covert action, as the seven-month-old conflict between Washington and Tehran continues to escalate.Vance, speaking at a media briefing, said the administration would keep its plans private to preserve US President Donald Trump's flexibility in deciding how to respond to Iran."There are a lot of additional tools that we have at our disposal. Some of those the President will use and some of them he won't," Vance said."But everything that could happen is on the table. Economic pressure, military pressure, diplomatic pressure, covert pressure. Of course these are tools in the President's toolkit," he added.The Vice President said Washington's strategy was also driven by concerns over a potential global energy crisis, accusing Iran of continuing attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz."We would have had an energy crisis because the Iranians refuse to stop acting like terrorists in the Strait of Hormuz," Vance said, while defending US military operations aimed...