United States Vice President JD Vance has departed for Pakistan, where he will engage in crucial talks aimed at de-escalating the ongoing US-Israeli conflict with Iran. Vance expressed optimism, stating he expects \u201cpositive\u201d outcomes from the negotiations.<\/p>\n
Speaking briefly to reporters on Friday as he boarded his flight to Islamabad, Vance remarked, \u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to the negotiation. I think it\u2019s going to be positive. We\u2019ll, of course, see.\u201d He also indicated that President Donald Trump had provided him with **\u201cpretty clear guidelines\u201d** for the upcoming meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we are certainly willing to extend an open hand,\u201d Vance affirmed. However, he also cautioned, \u201cIf they\u2019re going to try to play us, they\u2019re going to find that the negotiating team is not that receptive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some observers view the last-minute decision to have Vance lead the US delegation as a significant move, possibly reflecting Iran\u2019s preference for dealing with him over other envoys such as US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Both Witkoff and Kushner, who had previously led indirect negotiations on Iran\u2019s nuclear program, are still expected to attend Saturday\u2019s talks.<\/p>\n
The current conflict follows a 12-day war initiated by Israel against Iran in June 2025, which concluded with US strikes on three key Iranian nuclear sites. The latest escalation between the US, Israel, and Iran began on February 28.<\/p>\n
Vance, a former US Marine Corps member during the 2003 Iraq war, is known for his loyalty to President Trump but is also perceived as less hawkish than many other senior administration officials. He represents the anti-interventionist faction within Trump\u2019s \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d (MAGA) movement.<\/p>\n
Al Jazeera correspondent Mike Hanna reported from Washington, DC, that Vance\u2019s selection is \u201cinteresting\u201d given his limited prior role, suggesting it might be due to **\u201cthe Iranians had expressed their preference for dealing with Vance.\u201d**<\/p>\n
The Iranian delegation is expected to be led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. It remains unclear whether any representative from Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) will participate. The format of the negotiations\u2014whether US and Iranian officials will meet face-to-face or through intermediaries\u2014had not been disclosed as of Friday.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s talks will conclude an extraordinary week marked by intense rhetoric. President Trump had previously threatened strikes on Iran\u2019s civilian infrastructure, including power plants and bridges, if his terms were not met\u2014threats that international law experts suggested could constitute war crimes. On Tuesday, hours before a temporary ceasefire was announced, Trump escalated his warnings, stating that a **\u201cwhole civilization will die tonight\u201d** if a deal was not reached.<\/p>\n
While the ceasefire has largely held, both sides have offered conflicting accounts of the agreed-upon terms. The Trump administration claimed it accepted a 10-point plan from Iran, but maintained it differed from a previous proposal it had rejected. Key issues, including control over the Strait of Hormuz, the future of Iran\u2019s nuclear program, and the status of Israel\u2019s operations in Lebanon, lack clarity. Both the US and Israel assert that pausing operations in Lebanon was not part of the initial ceasefire, contradicting claims from Iran and Pakistan.<\/p>\n
However, in a phone interview on Thursday, Trump reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to keep operations in Lebanon more **\u201clow key\u201d** to avoid jeopardizing the talks in Pakistan. On Friday, Trump reiterated his threats in an interview with the New York Post, stating the US was **\u201cloading up the ships with the best ammunition, the best weapons ever made\u201d** should the negotiations fail.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf expressed skepticism about the negotiations proceeding, stating on X (formerly Twitter) that two conditions of the initial agreement\u2014a ceasefire in Lebanon and the release of Iran\u2019s blocked assets\u2014had not yet been fulfilled. **\u201cThese two matters must be fulfilled before negotiations begin,\u201d** he wrote.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs, Majid Takht Ravanchi, welcomed the Pakistan dialogue but expressed wariness that it could be a deception covering renewed escalation. He emphasized Iran\u2019s desire for an agreement with guarantees against future attacks.<\/p>\n
According to Ali Vaez, Iran project manager at the International Crisis Group, the two sides appear **\u201cmiles apart, and there\u2019s tremendous amounts of mistrust\u201d** even before the meeting. Vaez noted, \u201cI would argue that they\u2019re beginning from a negative starting point now, because of their recent experience of the Trump administration bombing them twice in the middle of negotiations in the past year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the deep mistrust, Vaez believes that all other options\u2014sanctions, economic, and military coercion\u2014have led to a \u201close-lose scenario.\u201d He suggested that if both sides are practical, they will realize that **\u201cit is so much better and less costly \u2026 to do concessions at the negotiating table.\u201d**<\/p>\n
Al Jazeera correspondent Osama Bin Javaid, reporting from Islamabad, cited sources indicating that **\u201csome ground progress is already being made\u201d** ahead of the main negotiators\u2019 arrival. However, it remains uncertain whether the US and Iran will resume talks from their February discussions on Iran\u2019s nuclear program in Oman and Switzerland, or if negotiations will start from scratch given the recent developments.<\/p>\n
#USIranTalks #PakistanDiplomacy #JDVance #MiddleEastPeace #CeasefireNegotiations #TrumpAdministration #IranNuclearDeal #Geopolitics #InternationalRelations #CrisisResolution<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United States Vice President JD Vance has departed for Pakistan, where he will engage in crucial talks aimed at de-escalating the ongoing US-Israeli conflict with Iran. Vance expressed optimism, stating he expects \u201cpositive\u201d outcomes from the negotiations. Speaking briefly to reporters on Friday as he boarded his flight to Islamabad, Vance remarked, \u201cWe\u2019re looking forward […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}