Pence: US must prepare for ‘inevitable’ action against Iran

Former Vice President Mike Pence argued Sunday the U.S. military should prepare for further strikes against Iran , action he deemed “inevitable.”

“It’s going to be absolutely imperative that we keep the pressure on, and that we keep the military assets in the region to be able to take the action that I believe is going to be inevitable,” Pence told host Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Despite the two sides signing a 60-day memorandum of understanding to pause hostilities in mid-June, the U.S. and Iranian militaries have exchanged strikes since early July.

The violated ceasefire outlined by the memorandum also expired this week , with no public sign of a deal between officials in Washington and Tehran.

President Trump on Wednesday said his administration was ramping up its economic warfare on the Islamic Republic.

In a post on Truth Social , the president wrote that any country that “allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face” economic consequences from the U.S.

Pence on Sunday equated the measures taken by the administration to “D-Day style economic sanctions” — echoing Trump’s rhetoric on Wednesday, when the president argued the sanctions “will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY” for Iran.

But the former vice president also said the Iranians “don’t yet understand that they have been defeated,” citing Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s remarks this weekend on ending the war.

“We are not going to bow our heads,” Pezeshkian said. “We are not going to come humiliated before the enemy. We can stand with power but with logic, and solve our problems.”

Based on that rhetoric, Pence argued the “time’s going to come” for the U.S. and Israel to “finish the job” in Iran.

“You don’t make peace with your enemy,” he told Bash. “You make peace with your defeated enemy.”