US Vice President JD Vance has acknowledged “a lot of mistakes and a lot of fundamental failures” in Washington’s handling of the war with Iran, as grieving families and rising fuel prices sharpen public scrutiny of the conflict.
Speaking at a CBS News town hall on Sunday, Vance faced Joey Amor, whose wife, Master Sgt Nicole Amor, was among six US Army Reserve soldiers killed in an Iranian drone strike on a military site in Kuwait in the war’s opening hours. At least 21 US service members have since been killed and hundreds wounded.
“Though the Iranian drone was the weapon that killed my wife, there were a lot of mistakes and a lot of fundamental failures that led up to that,” Amor said, asking how the administration would hold leaders accountable.
Vance said some information had not reached him, but pledged to take “every single failure extremely seriously.” He admitted that troop positioning had been “a huge mistake,” saying the military had since changed its approach to counter inexpensive drones and protect forces.
Pressed on why the war has not produced a clear victory, Vance argued that the United States had “in some ways” won decisively, while conceding that “the enemy gets a vote.” He said Washington seeks a firm Iranian commitment not to rebuild its nuclear programme.
In Tehran, President Masoud Pezeshkian urged parliament to approve Mehrdad Akhlaqi Ketabchi as defence minister, saying the US-sanctioned nominee should “take care of himself” because, in the president’s words, he was on an American “assassination list.”
Parliament approved Akhlaqi with 237 votes in favour, 15 against and no abstentions from 277 ballots cast. A veteran of Iran’s aerospace and missile-related defence sector, he replaces Aziz Nasirzadeh, who was killed earlier this year during US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
In his first remarks after approval, Akhlaqi warned of a “surprising and extensive” response to any new US-Israeli attack. He also said Iran had prepared measures against possible use of the US “Mother of All Bombs,” and cautioned Washington about safely withdrawing its forces from the region.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran’s offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days remains on the table. Under the proposal, the waterway would reopen on the sixth day if Washington met Iran’s conditions, with US-Iran talks resuming on the seventh.
Araghchi accused the United States of repeatedly disrupting diplomacy through broken agreements and the use of force.
The dispute continues to weigh on global energy markets. Vance said petrol prices were too high but would fall once the war ended, claiming they would be “three times as high” without the US Navy keeping oil and gas moving through Hormuz.
Tensions also persisted at sea. A tugboat was struck by two unidentified projectiles near Khor Fakkan in the United Arab Emirates, injuring one person, according to UK Maritime Trade Operations. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard separately said two oil tankers caught fire after striking naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
At a Kentucky rally, President Donald Trump insisted the war would end “very quickly,” claiming US strikes had “knocked out” Iran’s nuclear capacity.
Yet between an American admission of failure, a newly empowered Iranian defence minister and an unresolved offer over Hormuz, the path to peace remains as fragile as the waterway at the centre of the crisis.
