JD Vance has arrived in Pakistan with a US delegation ahead of anticipated crunch talks with Iran over the war in the Middle East.
A fragile two-week ceasefire hangs in the balance, with the two delegations expected to meet for the first time in person since Donald Trump started bombing Iran in March.
Trump reportedly wished his vice president luck as he flew into Islamabad, where he met with Pakistani officials who had played a crucial role in brokering the ceasefire agreement.
“We'll find out what's going on. They're militarily defeated,” Trump claimed. However, no direct meeting between Washington and Tehran had been announced at the time of writing.
Speaking ahead of the meetings, Iran’s vice-president, Mohammad Reza Aref said that there will be ‘no deal’ if Israel’s interests are prioritised over peace.
“If we negotiate in Islamabad with representatives of ‘America First,’ an agreement beneficial to both sides and the world is probable. However, if we face representatives of ‘Israel First,’ there will be no deal; we will inevitably continue our defence even more vigorously than before, and the world will face greater costs.”
Vance said he had been warned by Trump about what to do at the peace talks.
“If they're gonna try to play us they're gonna find the negotiating team is not going to be that receptive,” JD Vance said.
“The president gave us some pretty clear guidelines.”
Trump has also said that US forces are rearming and potentially preparing for more hostilities in the future.
The international community now holds its breath as it awaits whether progress can be made toward lasting peace in the region.
Thousands of people have died following five weeks of conflict, after Trump and Netanyahu unleashed chaos across the region with unprovoked airstrikes.
Iran struck various US allies and soon closed the Strait of Hormuz, prompting global economic turmoil, which may be one of the talking points at this weekend’s peace talks.
The tentative two-week ceasefire, hashed out on April 8, came just hours before Trump’s self-imposed deadline, before which he had threatened that a ‘whole civilisation will die’.
Iran and the U.S. appeared to agree to a truce following the troubling threat, but lasting peace remains uncertain.
It’s unclear exactly what will be discussed this weekend in Islamabad, but the situation in Lebanon and the Strait of Hormuz are likely to be among the talking points.
Israel killed more than 300 people in Lebanon following the ceasefire, dropping more than 100 bombs within 10 minutes across the nation.
Despite Iran and mediators maintaining that the ceasefire agreement included Lebanon, Israel’s leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, appeared to disregard this.
Responding to the widely condemned attacks, Trump said: “I spoke with Bibi and he’s going to low-key it. I just think we have to be sort of a little more low-key.”
