Vice President JD Vance will travel to Pakistan for peace talks with Iran as a ceasefire deal is set to expire.
According to Axios, Vance was expected to depart for Islamabad by Tuesday morning to discuss a potential deal to end the war.
The decision to send Vance was made after Washington spent Monday waiting to hear whether Tehran would send a negotiating team to Pakistan, the outlet reported.
In the past, US negotiators have sat down for discussions with both Iranian officials and Pakistani intermediaries.
A source told Axios that Iran was stalling while under pressure from the Revolutionary Guards to hold firm and not accept talks without a guarantee to end the US blockade.
President Trump has said it is ‘highly unlikely’ a ceasefire will be extended with Iran, warning that ‘lots of bombs start going off’ if Tehran does not agree to a deal.
‘I’m not going to be rushed into making a bad deal. We’ve got all the time in the world,’ the US President said in a phone interview with Bloomberg News.
The current two-week long ceasefire in place will expire on ‘Wednesday evening Washington time’ but Iran have not committed to attending further talks set to be held in Islamabad this week.
US Vice President JD Vance was expected to lead the US side, but Mr Trump said he would ‘not be rushed into making a bad deal’
Donald Trump refused to end his blockade and warned bombs will ‘start going off’ if a deal is not reached by tomorrow
Tehran has also said it is ‘prepared for military confrontation’ and will ‘punish the US’ if the President fails to pause his naval siege and enter talks
The president also said that the Strait of Hormuz would continue to be blockaded until the US and Iran reach an agreement on the war.
He later posted on Truth Social that he is ‘winning a War, BY A LOT’ and his deal ‘will be something that the entire World will be proud of’.
Trump has been on a posting spree on Truth Social this evening, first saying that ‘the DEAL that we are making with Iran will be FAR BETTER than the JCPOA, commonly referred to as “The Iran Nuclear Deal,” penned by Barack Hussein Obama and Sleepy Joe Biden, one of the Worst Deals ever made having to do with the Security of our Country.’
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was a 2015 agreement between Iran and the US, UK, France, China, Russia, and Germany to restrict Tehran’s nuclear program for sanctions relief.
The US withdrew from this agreement in 2018 and has been monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Trump continued: ‘If I did not terminate that “Deal,” Nuclear Weapons would have been used on Israel, and all over the Middle East, including our cherished U.S. Military Bases.’
He added: ‘If a Deal happens under “TRUMP,” it will guarantee Peace, Security, and Safety, not only for Israel and the Middle East, but for Europe, America, and everywhere else.
‘It will be something that the entire World will be proud of, instead of the years of Embarrassment and Humiliation that we have been forced to suffer due to incompetent and cowardly leadership!’
In another post he wrote: ‘I read the Fake News saying that I am under “pressure” to make a Deal. THIS IS NOT TRUE! I am under no pressure whatsoever, although, it will all happen, relatively quickly! Time is not my adversary, the only thing that matters is that we finally, after 47 years, straighten out the MESS that other Presidents let happen because they didn’t have the Courage or Foresight to do what had to be done with respect to Iran.’
Half an hour later he posted again that he is ‘winning a War, BY A LOT, things are going very well, our Military has been amazing’, before attacking the ‘fake news’ which would make you ‘actually think we are losing the War’.
Minutes later, he said: ‘The Iranian leadership has forced hundreds of Ships toward the United States, mostly Texas, Louisiana, and Alaska, to get their Oil — Thank you very much!’
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that the regime’s position on missing negotiations with the US ‘has not changed to this moment’ – contradicting Trump’s statement that the US negotiating team was heading to Islamabad.
The US President previously dismissed claims Iran would skip the meetings, telling the New York Post: ‘I would assume at this point nobody’s playing games.’
‘The naval blockade issue is a very fundamental obstacle in negotiations,’ Tasnim reported.
The news agency added that Pakistani mediators confirmed they had raised the matter with the US President.
The regime also objects to unspecified additional US demands communicated through diplomatic channels.
‘The Iranian delegation believes that as long as America does not look at the issue realistically and approaches the negotiating table with the same wrong calculations that led to its heavy battlefield defeat, negotiations are just a waste of time,’ Tasnim reported.
The news agency said Tehran ‘has no intention to participate in American theatre’ until important obstacles are removed and ‘a clear horizon for reaching an agreement acceptable to Iran takes shape’.
Regarding talking face to face with the Iranian top brass, Trump said he has ‘no problem’ meeting them.
‘If they want to meet, and we have some very capable people, but I have no problem meeting them,’ he said.
At the heart of the discussions, Trump said, is one non-negotiable demand: the Islamic Republic must abandon any pursuit of nuclear weapons.
‘Get rid of their nuclear weapons. That’s all very simple,’ he added. ‘There will be no nuclear weapon.’
Meanwhile, peace talks between Israel and Lebanon will resume on Thursday in Washington, an Israeli source said.
Lebanon’s president had earlier said these talks should be seen as separate to any negotiations taking place with Iran.
