U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that Washington was investigating reports that a U.S. strike hit a wedding celebration in Iran, killing and wounding civilians, while saying he could not yet confirm American forces were responsible.
Vance, responding to the reported civilian casualties, said “sometimes things happen” during combat and maintained that the U.S. does not deliberately target civilians.
"I’m extremely skeptical of this,” Vance said, referring to Iranian state media reports, which he argued had not provided reliable accounts of the conflict.
"What I can say with 100% confidence is that, unlike the IRGC, the United States never targets civilians in combat,” Vance said. "We never will do that. We never have done that.”
He acknowledged that civilian casualties can occur during military operations, saying: "Unfortunately, obviously, sometimes things happen.” He added that if the U.S. military makes mistakes, it investigates them and learns from them.
Iranian Health Ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour said Thursday that at least 18 people had been killed and 142 injured in recent U.S. airstrikes between the evenings of Aug. 30 and Sept. 2.
He said the reported casualties included four people in Sirik, seven in Khuzestan, four members of the IRGC Aerospace Force in Kermanshah and three Basij members on Lavan Island.
Kermanpour also said at least 50 people were wounded at a wedding gathering in Sirik, adding to concerns over civilian casualties during the conflict.
Vance, meanwhile, made clear that Washington is not currently negotiating with Tehran and does not intend to resume talks unless Iran stops attacks on commercial shipping.
"The president’s been very clear: we’re not talking to them, and we’re not going to talk to them unless they stop shooting at commercial shipping,” Vance said.
He rejected calls for a timetable, arguing that setting a fixed deadline could allow Iran to continue attacks while Washington’s strategy remained publicly predictable.
Vance said the U.S. was using military, economic, diplomatic and other forms of pressure to protect commercial vessels and maintain the flow of oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz.
He claimed that about 15 million barrels of oil passed through the strait despite the conflict.
"The message to the Iranians is simple,” Vance said. "You’ve got to stop shooting at commercial shipping.”
He also declined to say whether Washington was considering direct assistance to Iranian dissidents, saying that economic, military, diplomatic and covert measures remained among the administration’s available options.
Vance said the broader U.S. objectives were to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to avoid a global energy crisis.
He argued that American military operations had reduced the impact of Iran’s actions on world energy markets, while warning that Washington would not depend on Tehran to negotiate.
