With the ceasefire between the United States and Iran set to expire Tuesday night, Vice President JD Vance is expected to lead a US delegation to Islamabad for a fresh round of negotiations, according to two US officials cited in an Axios report. But Iran has not confirmed it will show up, and some Iranian officials are openly questioning whether the push for a deal is genuine at all.
Earlier the same day, Trump had indicated that his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would fly to Pakistan on Sunday, though he did not mention Vance at that point. It remains unclear exactly when the talks are supposed to begin or when Vance is scheduled to leave Washington.
Iran's reaction has been far more guarded. As of Sunday, Iranian officials hadnot confirmedthey would be sending negotiators to Islamabad. Several of those officials raised the possibility that Trump's deal-making talk could be a smokescreen for a US military strike. Iran's state news agency went further, flatly denying that any talks had been planned and pointing to what it described as Washington's "unreasonable and unrealistic demands, frequent changes of positions, constant contradictions" and the ongoing US blockade as reasons why there was "no clear prospect for fruitful negotiations."
Tehran said the move was a response to Trump's refusal to lift the blockade on the strait and to what Iranian officials described as new "maximalist" demands introduced by the US side.
Trump convened an emergency Situation Room meeting on Saturday in response to the developments. According to a US official cited in the report, Trump still expressed a willingness to pursue a deal at the end of that meeting, though other options remained on the table.
"Iran decided to fire bullets yesterday in the Strait of Hormuz — A Total Violation of our Ceasefire Agreement!" he wrote.
Screenshot of Trump's Truth Social post.
He confirmed his representatives would arrive in Islamabad on Monday evening but paired that announcement with a stark warning. "We're offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don't, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!" Trump wrote.
He went further still. "They'll come down fast, they'll come down easy and, if they don't take the DEAL, it will be my Honor to do what has to be done, which should have been done to Iran, by other Presidents, for the last 47 years. IT'S TIME FOR THE IRAN KILLING MACHINE TO END!" he added.
After days of telling the American public and the world that the conflict was effectively over, Trump now appears to be edging back toward the kind of language that preceded the war in the first place.
Source: India Latest News, Breaking News Today, Top News Headlines | Times Now
