Islamabad: Vice President JD Vance has landed in Islamabad at the head of a high-level US delegation, tasked with negotiating an end to the six-week-old war with Iran. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir are mediating the talks, which follow Vance’s pointed departure remarks warning Iran against underestimating the US.
A US government aircraft carrying top officials touched down in Pakistan’s capital, two Pakistani sources told Reuters. Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, also arrived to join Iranian negotiators in the high-stakes discussions.
Trump assigned Vance — long skeptical of extended foreign wars and a reluctant backer of the Iran conflict — to pursue a diplomatic resolution. En route, Vance signaled firmness: “As the US president said, if the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we’re certainly willing to extend an open hand. If they’re going to try to play us, they’re going to find that the negotiating team is not that receptive.”
Trump himself framed the stakes bluntly ahead of the talks: “The Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways. The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!”
Delegation’s Role In Prior Indirect Talks
Vance, Witkoff, and Kushner build on three prior rounds of indirect negotiations addressing US grievances over Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, plus its support for Middle East proxy groups.
Vance, outspoken against open-ended troop commitments to Iran, departed on Friday to spearhead the Islamabad mediation.
Historic Significance Of Islamabad Engagement
These talks mark an extraordinary US-Iran diplomatic moment, unseen at this level since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The closest prior instance was President Barack Obama’s September 2013 phone call with Iran’s newly elected President Hassan Rouhani on the nuclear issue.
Trump abandoned that deal in 2018 during his first term. The same year, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — who died at the war’s start six weeks ago — forbade direct US-Iran contacts.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told AP that Vance, Witkoff, Kushner, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have collaborated throughout. National Security Council, State Department, and Pentagon officials will assist.
“President Trump has a proven track record of achieving good deals on behalf of the United States and the American people, and he will only accept one that puts America first,” Kelly said.
The White House named no other negotiators beyond Vance, Witkoff, and Kushner.
Ceasefire Tensions Persist Amid Truce
Negotiations come days after a Wednesday truce announcement, but the two sides clash over terms. Iran demands halting Israeli attacks in Lebanon as part of the deal, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump maintain the ceasefire excludes Lebanon, with operations set to proceed.
