{"id":208481,"date":"2026-04-22T00:17:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T00:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/jd-vance-to-lead-us-delegation-in-pakistan-if-iran-agrees-to-talks-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T00:17:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T00:17:34","slug":"jd-vance-to-lead-us-delegation-in-pakistan-if-iran-agrees-to-talks-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/jd-vance-to-lead-us-delegation-in-pakistan-if-iran-agrees-to-talks-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"JD Vance to lead US delegation in Pakistan if Iran agrees to talks – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

US vice-president to travel to Islamabad with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner as deadline for current ceasefire looms
Middle east crisis \u2013 live updates<\/a>
Pakistan seeks to raise its global standing in push for Middle East peace<\/a>
JD Vance is expected to fly to Islamabad<\/a> at the head of a US diplomatic delegation on Tuesday if Iran agrees to further talks in the Pakistani capital as the deadline for the current ceasefire looms.
The US vice-president will travel with Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump\u2019s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president\u2019s son-in-law \u2013 though Iran\u2019s president warned there remained a \u201cdeep historical mistrust\u201d of the US.
Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran was concerned about \u201cunconstructive and contradictory signals from American officials\u201d and concluded they amounted to an effort to seek the country\u2019s surrender. \u201cIranians do not submit to force,\u201d he said.
However, one senior Iranian official told the Reuters news agency that Tehran was \u201cpositively reviewing\u201d its participation, amid reports that its delegation would again be headed by parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf<\/a> if Vance attends.
Ghalibaf said later that Iran would not accept negotiations with the US while under threat, adding in the post on X early on Tuesday that \u201cwe have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield\u201d. He also accused Trump of seeking to \u201cturn this negotiating table \u2013 in his own imagination \u2013 into a table of surrender or to justify renewed warmongering.\u201d
Tehran called for an end to the US blockade of the strait of Hormuz, while Trump repeated a demand that Iran should never be allowed to build a nuclear weapon and even said he would be willing to meet Iranian leaders himself.
Earlier, the US president had confused the situation by telling the New York Post that Vance and his team were \u201cheading over now\u201d and he expected them to be arriving in Islamabad that evening.
That was quickly corrected by US officials who said while there had been a discussion about Vance leaving on Monday, the vice-president was in fact expected to depart on Tuesday morning if the talks were taking place.
A second round of high-stakes discussions to end a war begun by US and Israeli bombing at the end of February could \u2013 if they go ahead \u2013 take place on Wednesday, with the threat of renewed outbreak of fighting in the background.
Trump said he now considers the two-week ceasefire with Iran ends \u201cWednesday evening Washington time\u201d, extending the pause for an extra 24 hours to allow the critical meeting in Islamabad to take place.
In an interview with Bloomberg, he added it was \u201chighly unlikely that I\u2019d extend it\u201d further and indicating bombing could restart shortly after \u2013 though in the same conversation the president also insisted that \u201cI\u2019m not going to be rushed into making a bad deal. We\u2019ve got all the time in the world.\u201d
Vance led the US team during 21 hours of failed discussions with Iran earlier in the month, which collapsed after Iran would not agree to US demands to end nuclear enrichment and hand over its 440kg of highly enriched uranium.
The Iranians had said there remained a deficit of trust with the US, and wanted assurances they would not be attacked again if a final agreement was reached. Though Iran was intensively bombed during the five-week US-Israel joint campaign, Tehran\u2019s leadership does not believe it has been defeated.
Pakistan has been preparing for possible negotiations since Sunday, setting up a security lockdown and suspending public transport in the capital. Islamabad\u2019s electricity board also promised that power cuts would be suspended in the city while negotiations continue.
Power cuts lasting six to seven hours a day have become typical in cities across Pakistan as the country grapples with oil and gas shortages caused by the double closure of the strait of Hormuz by Iran and the US.
Trump had imposed a blockade on Iranian ports in response to Iran\u2019s decision to charge tolls on merchant shipping crossing the strategic waterway, and on Sunday the US military seized an Iranian-flagged container ship<\/a> trying to cross, raising concerns an escalation of hostilities would prevent peace talks resuming.
US central command said the Touska had been seized after its crew had ignored six hours of warnings. Its engines were disabled by fire from a US destroyer<\/a> and it was then captured by marines from the USS Tripoli, arriving by helicopter and roping down on to the merchant vessel.
Though Iran had briefly lifted its own blockade on Friday, it reimposed it again on Saturday<\/a> because the US would not lift its counter-blockade. One tanker in the region was attacked by Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards on Saturday and a second container ship was struck by an unknown projectile.
Commercial shipping was once again at a near standstill in the strait. Three tankers made the crossing on Monday \u2013 after 18 ships had transited on Saturday \u2013 and the price of Brent crude oil was up by $5 to more than $95 on Monday, reflecting the renewed maritime danger.
Israel and Lebanon are due to hold a second round of ambassador level talks in Washington on Thursday, the US state department said, the first discussions between the two countries since a 10-day ceasefire in the theatre was announced last week.
Israel also told residents of southern Lebanon to stay out of a zone of territory next to the border, and warned people not to approach the area of the Litani River, as it sought to consolidate its military grip on the area while the ceasefire is ongoing.
A map posted by the country\u2019s military on social media marked a red line through 21 villages across the south, covering an area 5km to 10km from the border.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US vice-president to travel to Islamabad with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner as deadline for current ceasefire loomsMiddle east crisis \u2013 live updatesPakistan seeks to raise its global standing in push for Middle East peaceJD Vance is expected to fly to Islamabad at the head of a US diplomatic delegation on Tuesday if Iran agrees […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":208482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-208481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}