U.S. strikes on Iran's Kharg Island do not represent a change in American strategy, U.S. Vice President JD Vance said on Tuesday as a U.S. official separately told Reuters the additional strikes on military targets did not impact oil infrastructure.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance attends a press conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, at the former Carmelite Monastery in Budapest, Hungary, April 7, 2026. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
U.S. strikes on Iran's Kharg Island do not represent a change in American strategy, U.S. Vice President JD Vance said on Tuesday as a U.S. official separately told Reuters the additional strikes on military targets did not impact oil infrastructure.
The official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, described at least some of the strikes as targeting sites that had been previously struck before and said the attack occurred in the early morning hours of Tuesday.
Vance, speaking separately in Budapest, said the strikes were not a change in U.S. strategy, with the Trump administration confident that it can get a response from Iran by 8 p.m. (0001 Wednesday GMT) in negotiations to end the conflict. U.S. President Donald Trump is demanding Iran forswear nuclear weapons and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil transit waterway.
“We were going to strike some military targets on Kharg Island, and I believe we have done so," Vance said.
"We're not going to strike energy and infrastructure targets until the Iranians either make a proposal that we can get behind or don't make a proposal," he added. "I don't think the news in Kharg Island ... represents a change in strategy, or represents any change from the President of the United States.”
Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali in Washington, Humeyra Pamuk in Budapest
The United States expressed confidence that peace talks with Iran would go ahead in Pakistan and a senior Iranian official said Tehran was considering joining, but significant hurdles and uncertainty remained as the end of a ceasefire loomed.
Ships were largely avoiding the Strait of Hormuz on Monday after an escalation at the weekend in which Iran fired what appeared to be warning shots at vessels and the U.S. military seized an Iranian cargo ship.
In a characteristically combative post on Truth Social, US President Donald Trump has pushed back against media narratives surrounding the conflict with Iran, while doubling down on his conviction that Tehran must never acquire a nuclear weapon and openly calling for regime change.
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