Vice President Vance to Lead US Delegation in Negotiations with Iran in Pakistan

US Vice President JD Vance will lead the US delegation for talks with Iran in Pakistan. This White House statement comes shortly after President Donald Trump said Vance would not make the trip. According to AFP on Monday (20/4/2026), Trump announced that he would send negotiators to Islamabad for a meeting with Tehran to end the conflict raging in the Middle East, with the ceasefire set to expire soon. However, Trump said Vance—who led the last round of talks with Tehran in Islamabad but yielded no agreement—would not make the trip, citing security concerns. “It’s just a security issue,” Trump told ABC News. “JD is great.” But the White House quickly changed that statement when asked about the comment. Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will attend the talks, a White House official told AFP on condition of anonymity. All three were present at the last meeting on 11-12 April. Previously, Trump accused Iran of a “total violation” of the two-week ceasefire between the two countries with attacks in the Strait of Hormuz—and threatened to destroy power plants and bridges if no agreement is reached. Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that he offered Iran a “reasonable deal” and if Tehran rejects it, “the United States will destroy every power plant, and every bridge, in Iran. No more good guys!” “They will come down fast, they will come down easy and, if they do not accept the deal, it will be my honour to do what must be done, which should have been done to Iran, by other Presidents, over the last 47 years,” he wrote. Washington’s UN envoy, Mike Waltz, told ABC News that he believes this new round of talks will produce “very important” results. The Strait of Hormuz remained closed on Sunday (12/4) amid the deadlock. Iran reaffirmed its closure to shipping—a day after saying it would reopen the strategic waterway. A British maritime security agency said Iran’s Revolutionary Guard had fired on a tanker on Saturday (18/4), while security intelligence firm Vanguard Tech reported that the forces threatened to “destroy” an empty cruise ship that fled the Gulf. In a third incident, the British agency said it had received reports of a ship “struck by an unknown projectile, causing damage” to a shipping container but no fire. The US-Iran ceasefire is scheduled to end on Wednesday (22/4).