Karim Sadjadpour
Role at the time: Senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and CNN global affairs analyst, interviewed on CNN's The Source with Kaitlan Collins
Response to this claim
Vice President JD Vance said he would not call the U.S. fight with Iran a war, saying there is no active shooting right now and that major combat operations lasted about six weeks.
“Iran undeniably is in a war with the United States, even if President Vance -- Vice President Vance says that the United States is not in a war.”
CNN's rush transcript of The Source with Kaitlan Collins for September 8, 2026, aired at 9 p.m. ET. Collins introduces Sadjadpour as CNN's Iran expert and global affairs analyst and asks about strikes on Iranian tankers. CNN captions him as a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. CNN marks the transcript as possibly not in its final form.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
The reference point is Vance's statement that he would not call the fighting a war. Sadjadpour offers a different description, saying Iran "undeniably is in a war" with the United States, and does not address whether the fighting is right or wrong. That disputes the label without denouncing Vance, so challenges the characterization fits better than condemns.