JD Vance expects positive peace talks in Pakistan with clear guidelines for Iran

WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance boarded Air Force Two early Friday, warning Iran not “to play” the US,  ahead of what he expects to be “positive” negotiations in Pakistan to wind down the war.“As the president of the United States said, if the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we’re certainly willing to extend the open hand. If they’re going to try to play us, then they’re going to find the negotiating team is not that receptive,” Vance told reporters at Joint Base Andrews.“So we’re going to try to have a positive negotiation.The president gave us some pretty clear guidelines, and we’re going to see,” he added.The vice president is leading negotiations for the US with special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Islamabad.Meanwhile, the Iranian delegation will include Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the Wall Street Journal reported.President Trump and US officials have declared victory in the more than 40-day war, touting the destruction of most of the Iranian regime’s missile and drone systems.But Tehran’s closure of global shipping lanes through the Strait of Hormuz has spike oil prices and delayed the exporting of other critical goods.A preliminary, two-week cease-fire was agreed to on Tuesday between the US and Iran, premised on the reopening of the strait, through which roughly one-quarter of the world’s seaborne oil passes.“Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz,” the president posted on his Truth Social Thursday night.

“That is not the agreement we have!”Iran has delayed a full reopening of the waterway, and pointed to Israeli strikes in Lebanon against Hezbollah as proof that the cease-fire agreement was not being honored.The Israelis have maintained that the pause in fighting wasn’t based on their own military actions in Lebanon, though Vance said that the I...