Vance Puts Cheap Petrol First and an Iranian Bomb Second

Vice President JD Vance told Fox News on Thursday that the first American goal in the confrontation with Iran is to keep oil and gasoline cheap for Americans, and that the second is to ensure Iran never gets a nuclear weapon. He said he feels confident both are being accomplished, and that the Iranians sometimes do not honour the commitments they have made.

Officials do not usually number their objectives out loud. Doing so turns a matter of emphasis into a stated order, and the order here places a domestic price at home above a proliferation threshold abroad. Jerusalem has spent this war arguing that the second item is the reason for the first, which is a different proposition from ranking them.

His description of the endgame follows the same shape. Vance said it ends with the United States in a stronger position, Iran without a nuclear weapon, and the Strait of Hormuz returned to a state where oil and gas prices are stable. Two of those three are about price.

The strait carried roughly a fifth of the world's seaborne oil before the war began on 28 February. Iran closed it early on, and in April the United States answered with its own blockade of shipping linked to Iran. Both are still in place, which means the item Vance ranked first is the one neither side has yet delivered.