Updated

US Vice President JD Vance said Washington is using "diplomatic, military and economic" means to pressure Tehran, telling Fox News that Iranians "sometimes make commitments that they don't honour" and predicting the confrontation would end with the US "in a stronger position." Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has promised unprecedented economic measures against Iran, as the administration presses ahead with a sanctions-and-force campaign running alongside stalled ceasefire diplomacy. On Friday, President Donald Trump escalated further, saying he would hit Iran hard economically and would soon declare the Strait of Hormuz a US "territory." Control of the waterway has been a sticking point in ceasefire negotiations between Washington and Tehran, and the declaration — legally unprecedented for an international strait — would mark a sharp escalation. Trump urged Americans to tolerate slightly higher petrol prices as the price of the "great service" of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and dismissed concerns about conditions aboard the aircraft carrier deployed to the region. Iran has not formally responded to the Hormuz remarks.