US Vice President JD Vance warned Iran not to “play games” with the US as he headed abroad to negotiate an end to the war between the two countries.
Vance, who has long been skeptical of foreign military intervention and outspoken about the prospect of sending troops into open-ended conflicts, left Friday to lead negotiations with Iran in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
Boarding Air Force Two bound for Pakistan, the vice president said: “We look forward to the negotiations. I believe they will be positive. Of course, we’ll see.” He then pointed out: “If the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we are certainly willing to extend a hand to them. If they try to play with us, then they will find that the negotiating team is not so receptive.”
Vance also said Trump “gave us pretty clear instructions” on how the talks should go, but did not elaborate. The vice president did not take questions from reporters traveling with him.
In addition to the US vice president, the US mission includes special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Both took part in three rounds of indirect nuclear talks with Iranian negotiators in Oman before the US and Israel launched attacks against Iran on 28 February.
Vance’s difficult mission
For the US vice president, who has kept a particularly low profile during the Middle East conflict, this will be one of the most important moments of his career. But the man widely seen as one of the leading contenders for the 2028 US presidential election will also face huge challenges when talks begin on Saturday in Islamabad.
“I can’t think of any instance where the vice president has conducted formal negotiations like these,” Aaron Wolf Manes, a lecturer at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy and an expert on the role of the US vice presidency in foreign policy, told AFP news agency.
“This is a high-risk, high-reward business.” Vance built his political image as an avowed anti-aggressionist who wanted to keep America out of further foreign wars. This has made it difficult to balance his positions after Trump started a war with Iran.
The New York Times reported this week that, during closed-door talks in the weeks leading up to the war, Vance railed against military intervention, arguing it could cause chaos in the region and split Trump’s MAGA coalition.
However, Vance now suddenly finds himself taking on the role of Trump’s diplomatic go-between for a deal with Iran. One theory as to why the vice president is leading these efforts is that the Iranians may see him as a more likely partner for diplomacy, given his well-publicized opposition to the war and his general skepticism about American interventionism.
“If he can come up with something that covers the issue without addressing the real issues, that’s probably enough,” says Manes.
Uncertainty about the delegation of Iran
An Iranian delegation arrived in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad last night for US-brokered talks, according to a Wall Street Journal report, citing sources familiar with the matter.
According to the publication, the delegation is led by the Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, and the Speaker of the Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said the news of Iranian officials arriving in Islamabad for negotiations with the US “is completely false”. Other state media in Iran have also reported such denials.
