US-Iran war news LIVE: JD Vance says Iran fight isn’t a ‘war’ as Trump navigates conflict ahead of midterms

US-Iran war news LIVE: US Vice President JD Vance on Thursday dismissed the use of the word “war” to describe the ongoing fighting between the United States and Iran as he steered clear of predicting that the six-month-old conflict would be over by November’s midterm elections. When asked whether the fighting could be wrapped up before the upcoming midterms in November, Vance said, “I wouldn’t call it a war,” and added, “Right now, there is no active shooting.” His remarks come nearly a week after Washington launched another attack on Tehran, targeting the Lakar Island, with Tehran retaliating and attacking US forces stationed in the Middle East.

‘All options against Iran on the table, including covert pressure’: Vance

Vance on Thursday (local time) said that US President Donald Trump’s administration has a series of options available at its disposal to deal with Tehran, including economic, military, diplomatic, and covert measures, as tensions between the two sides continue to escalate after Washington carried out a fresh round of strikes earlier this week. He said, “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,” and added, “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.”

Iran strikes US targets as Washington says it is probing wedding attack

Tehran on Thursday said that it targeted the US military bases in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), vowing to avenge a wedding attack that it blamed on Washington, as Vance said the strike was being probed. Kuwait’s army said it intercepted a missile and drone attack from the Islamic Republic, with the latter reporting that it struck US assets at the Ahmad al-Jaber Air Base “with missiles and drones”. The strikes came after the Iranian Red Crescent said a missile attack on a wedding in the Iranian coastal town of Kuhestak killed four people on Tuesday night, including a child, and wounded more than 50.

South Korea prepares military deployment in Hormuz: Report

South Korea is reportedly preparing to deploy military assets to support freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and aims to dispatch them before the end of the year, Reuters reported, citing government sources. The government was considering options including sending a maritime patrol aircraft, a logistics support vessel or a mine detection and clearance unit, and had been discussing the scale and nature of a potential contribution with countries including the United States, Britain and France.

Stay tuned to this LIVE blog for all the latest updates on the US-Iran war.