JD Vance to lead Iran ceasefire negotiations in Pakistan, White House says
The US vice president, who has largely stayed out of the spotlight regarding the war on Iran, will lead on Friday a team headed to Islamabad, Pakistan, to discuss next steps in ceasefire negotiations, the White House announced on Wednesday.
JD Vance will engage in meetings there starting on Saturday, alongside President Donald Trump's special envoy for peace missions, Steve Witkoff, and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar are likely to mediate the negotiations, while Iran will likely be represented by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his team. It is unclear if Israel will have direct representation.
"We know we look forward to those in-person meetings," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday.
Kushner has no official role in the US administration, and both he and Witkoff have come under scrutiny for their handling of the nuclear negotiations with Iran in February, just before the US launched its attacks on the Islamic Republic in conjunction with Israel.
"Vice President Vance has played a very significant and a key role in this since the very beginning. Of course, he's the president's right-hand man. He is the vice president of the United States. He's been involved in all of these discussions," she added, in what seemed a bid to allay concerns that Vance's anti-interventionist stance meant Trump had sidelined him.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that JD Vance was the most opposed to the war in Iran from within Trump's cabinet.
When the US began its air strikes on Iran on 28 February, Vance was not pictured alongside the president in the makeshift, secured room at Trump's Florida resort. Instead, photos released by the White House show him back in Washington, alongside another longtime anti-war voice in the cabinet, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Conflicting narratives
Trump on Tuesday announced that a two-week ceasefire had been agreed with Iran, alongside the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council confirmed the agreement, describing it as a major victory and stating that the truce extends to the conflicts in Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen - a key demand made by Tehran.
Israel said it supports Trump’s decision but maintained that the ceasefire does not include Lebanon. Pakistan, which mediated the US–Iran talks, said that it does.
Israel has since killed at least 254 people after it launched a barrage of missiles on Beirut on Wednesday - a figure not seen in one day since the height of its genocide in Gaza, where over 72,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023.
"Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire," Leavitt told reporters.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, she said, "assured the president he'll continue to be a helpful partner".
Asked if Israel's ramped-up attacks on Lebanon may be undermining the ceasefire with Iran, Leavitt only responded that "this will continue to be discussed, I am sure, between the president and Prime Minister Netanyahu".
Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has been under a ceasefire agreement with Israel since November 2024 - one that Israel has violated thousands of times - launched rockets at Israel after the killing last month of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Israel has since mounted a ground invasion into its northern neighbour's territory.
Sticking points
Trump wants the Strait of Hormuz "reopened immediately, without limitation", Leavitt said on Wednesday, given it is a precondition of the deal that the US accepted on Tuesday, adding that there has been "an uptick of traffic in the Strait today".
The MarineTraffic tracking tool has shared some data to that effect, but the increase in movement is minuscule.
The 10-point plan on which the ceasefire is based includes a stipulation that would see Iran impose a $2m fee on every ship transiting the strait, with those funds split with neighbouring Oman. Oman has said it would not collect any such fees.
The funds collected will go towards the reconstruction of Iran, which has seen much of its key infrastructure destroyed.
But in light of Wednesday's developments, Iran is now considering reimposing its full leverage along the waterway.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Wednesday that "aggression against the proud Hezbollah is aggression against Iran", and that "the battlefield is preparing a heavy response to the Israeli regime's savage crimes", according to Iran's Mehr News Agency.
Strikes on Iran itself were also reported late on Wednesday, local time, which could unravel the ceasefire entirely.
After Leavitt assured reporters that Iran no longer has the capability to produce nuclear weapons - an assertion also made last year, although the threat of nuclear weapons was used as a rationale for the current war - she was pressed on whether the US would still be taking Iran's enriched uranium, as Trump has said he wants to do.
"This is on the top of the priority list for the president and his negotiating team as they head into these next round of discussions," she responded.
"That is a red line that the president is not going to back away from, and he's committed to ensuring that takes place. We hope it will be through diplomacy," she added.
"Have they given any indication they would turn it over?" a reporter asked.
"They have. Yes," Leavitt said.
Iran has said it retains the right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes.
This article was sourced from Middle East Eye.
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