What had looked like a concrete diplomatic mission unravelled in real time on Tuesday, as a second round of US-Iran peace talks in Islamabad appeared to stall before it even began. Vice President JD Vance — who had been expected to leave for Pakistan that morning — arrived at the White House for meetings, with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio also seen entering the West Wing.
Market analyst Adam Cochran reported on X that flight-tracking data showed the US government plane scheduled to take Witkoff and Kushner to Islamabad appeared to have turned back mid-air, after a market sell-off struck around 11 am. 'Something fell apart,' Cochran wrote.
