Vice President J.D. Vance told confidants last week that walking out of negotiations with Iran and announcing a blockade on Iranian ports "would probably force the Iranians to fold within a few days," according to the Financial Times. Instead, Vance found himself stood up by Iranian negotiators, who waited until the last minute on Tuesday afternoon to announce that they would not attend the second round of talks in Pakistan.
President Donald Trump, who had threatened "to be bombing" the minute that the U.S.-Iranian ceasefire expired on Wednesday, instead announced that he would "hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal," while continuing to enforce the blockade. Axios reports that privately, the Trump administration is willing to extend "another three to five days of ceasefire." In other words, the U.S. and Iran are now locked in a state of neither war nor peace.
