US Vice President JD Vance is reportedly traveling to Pakistan on Tuesday for talks with Iran, along with White House advisers Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, as uncertainty persists over whether officials from Tehran will show up.
An Iranian official, speaking to Reuters, said on Monday that Tehran was “positively reviewing” its participation in talks, despite earlier ruling them out, but stressed that no decision had been made.
On Tuesday, Iranian media reported that no delegation had yet departed for the talks. But a Pakistani source involved in the discussions said there was momentum for talks to recommence on Wednesday and said US President Donald Trump could attend in person, or virtually, if a deal were to be signed.
“Things are moving forward and the talks are on track for tomorrow,” the source told Reuters on Tuesday on the condition of anonymity.
A two-week ceasefire in the US-Israeli war with Iran is due to expire on Wednesday.
According to the Axios report on Vance, the White House spent all of Monday waiting for a signal from the Islamic Republic as to its intentions for the negotiations.
The report said Tehran was stalling, amid pressure from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on other elements of the regime not to negotiate unless the US ends its blockade of Iranian ports and ships.
The regime was reportedly waiting for a green light from its Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. A source with knowledge of the matter told Axios that that OK came on Monday night.
Khamenei has yet to appear in public. He is believed to have been seriously wounded on February 28, when the US and Israel launched their war against Iran with an attack that killed his father and predecessor ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had ruled Iran since 1989.
The US and Israel launched the war to degrade Iran’s military capabilities, including its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and to set the conditions for internal regime change, officials from both countries have said.
After making a series of escalating threats, Trump announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran on April 8, saying it was agreed to in exchange for Iran opening the Strait of Hormuz, which the regime had closed in response to the US-Israeli attacks.
A first round of peace talks was held in Pakistan the following Saturday, ending without a deal. The US then imposed a blockade on Iranian ports, after which Iran again shut the Strait of Hormuz.
This past Sunday, the US fired on and seized an Iranian cargo ship. Maritime security sources said on Monday that the vessel was likely to have had what Washington deemed dual-use items, with military applications, onboard.
Trump warned earlier in the week that the US would destroy every bridge and power plant in Iran if it rejected his terms, the latest in a string of such threats.
Iran has said that if the United States were to attack its civilian infrastructure, it would strike power stations and desalination plants in its Gulf Arab neighbors.
Overnight Monday-Tuesday, Iran’s chief negotiator, its Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, seemed to cast further doubt on a second round of talks with the United States, lashing out at Trump.
“Trump, by imposing a siege and violating the ceasefire, seeks to turn this negotiating table — in his own imagination — into a table of surrender or to justify renewed warmongering,” Ghalibaf wrote on X.
“We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats, and in the past two weeks, we have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield,” he asserted.
Trump has said the United States will not lift its blockade until Tehran agrees to a peace deal to end the war.
“THE BLOCKADE, which we will not take off until there is a ‘DEAL,’ is absolutely destroying Iran,” Trump posted overnight. “They are losing $500 Million Dollars a day, an unsustainable number, even in the short run.”
Several of Trump’s advisers complained to CNN that the president was damaging the negotiations with his nonstop public commentary about the talks’ content.
The officials said, according to a report published on Monday night US time, that talks had been nearing a breakthrough on Friday, until Trump began talking about them on social media and in phone interviews with reporters.
Trump in those interviews claimed that Iran agreed to every point of contention, including giving up its entire stockpile of enriched uranium. Iranian officials quickly issued denials of Trump’s claims.
Responding to the CNN report, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “The United States has never been closer to a good deal with Iran, unlike the horrible deal made by the Obama administration, thanks to President Trump’s negotiating ability.”
“Anyone who cannot see President Trump’s tactics to play the long game are either stupid or willfully ignorant,” Leavitt said.
She was referring to the 2015 deal then-president Barack Obama’s administration negotiated with Iran, curbing its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
The US officials suggested to CNN that Trump caused further harm by continuing to take calls from reporters and posting dozens of times on his Truth Social platform each day.
Trump on Sunday said that Vance would not be attending the second round of Iran talks in Pakistan due to security concerns. The White House later clarified that Vance would in fact be leading the US delegation in Pakistan.
On Monday, Trump said in an interview that Vance had already departed for Islamabad when he in fact was still in Washington.
Later Monday, Trump claimed that a deal with Iran would be reached later that day, even though talks were not scheduled to begin until Tuesday at the earliest and Tehran had not even confirmed that it would attend.
Trump posted again overnight, writing that obtaining Iran’s existing uranium stockpile would be “long and difficult” in the aftermath of last year’s US strikes on the country’s nuclear sites.
“Operation Midnight Hammer was a complete and total obliteration of the Nuclear Dust sites in Iran,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, referring to the American bombing campaign that capped a 12-day war in June. “Therefore, digging it out will be a long and difficult process.”
Trump has said he’s “highly unlikely” to extend the truce, but also that he would extend it if necessary. He said the US may not even need to extend the truce, suggesting a deal may be reached before then.
On Monday, Trump told PBS that if the ceasefire expires on Wednesday, “Then lots of bombs start going off.”
