US Vice President JD Vance on Friday warned Iran not to “play” Washington as he headed to Pakistan for negotiations with Tehran aimed at ending the war that began at the end of February.
Vance, said to be one of the most reluctant defenders of the war with Iran, has been tasked by Donald Trump to lead a delegation to Islamabad for the negotiations to now find a resolution and stave off the US President’s astonishing threat to wipe out its “whole civilisation.”
The delegation also includes Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Vance, who has long been sceptical of foreign military interventions and outspoken about the prospect of sending troops into open-ended conflicts, boarded Air Force Two on Friday on his way to Pakistan
“We’re looking forward to the negotiation. I think it’s gonna be positive. We’ll, of course, see,” Vance said.
He cited Trump in saying, “If the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we’re certainly willing to extend the open hand.” But he added, “If they’re gonna try and play us, then they’re gonna find that the negotiating team is not that receptive.”
Vance also said that Trump “gave us some pretty clear guidelines” on how talks should go, but he didn’t elaborate.
Collapsing ceasefire and pressure to end the war on JD Vance
The US-Iran talks come as a tenuous, temporary ceasefire announced on Tuesday appears to be on the verge of collapse. The chasm between Iran’s public demands and those from the U.S. and its partner Israel seems irreconcilable. And in the US, where JD Vance might ask voters in two years’ time to make him the next president, there is growing political and economic pressure to wrap it up.
The White House has provided scant detail about the format of the talks — whether they will be direct or indirect — and has not provided specific expectations for the meeting.
But Vance’s arrival for negotiations marks a rare moment of high-level UA government engagement with the Iranian government. Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the most direct contact had been when President Barack Obama, in September 2013, called newly elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to discuss Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran has insisted that an end to the Israeli war in Lebanon was part of the ceasefire. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump said the truce did not cover Lebanon, and the Israeli operations there continued.
Washington, meanwhile, demanded that Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The Islamic Republic had closed the critical shipping waterway in response to Israel’s intensifying attacks against the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.
Trump on Thursday said Iran was “doing a very poor job” of allowing oil tankers to pass through, writing on social media, “That is not the agreement we have!”
High stakes for the world, as well as for JD Vance
It’s the highest-stakes moment thus far for JD Vance, who spent much of last year as more of a background player in the Donald Trump White House, especially as others like Elon Musk and secretary of state Marco Rubio took turns as ever-present advisers for the US President.
But Vance’s portfolio is fattening fast, first with a mission to root out fraud in government programs at home and now to help solve a war in West Asia, where complicated doesn’t even begin to describe things.
Vance is an Iraq War veteran with the Marines and served two years as a US senator from Ohio before becoming the Vice President. But he has little diplomatic experience.
He has dismissed speculation that the Iranians asked him to join the talks.
“I don’t know that. I would be surprised if that was true. But, you know, I wanted to be involved because I thought I could make a difference,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
Trump has noted his deputy was “less enthusiastic” than other top senior officials in the Republican administration.
Vance and Rubio are seen as the Republican Party’s strongest potential 2028 presidential contenders, though neither has given a clear answer about whether they intend to run.
