The US resumes negotiations with Iran. Trump's emissaries, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, are leaving for Pakistan
US President Donald Trump's emissaries, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, will travel to Pakistan on Saturday to resume negotiations aimed at ending the war with Iran, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Friday.
Witkoff and Kushner go to Pakistan on Saturday PHOTO EPA-EFE
Vice President JD Vance, who joined Witkoff and Kushner in peace talks with Iranian officials earlier this month in Islamabad, will not go to Pakistan but will “remains on hold” to join the negotiations.
“Steve and Jared are going to Pakistan tomorrow to hear the Iranians' position”Leavitt told reporters at the White House, according to POLITICO. “The president, the vice president and the secretary of state will remain here in the United States for updates, and the vice president, as I understand it, is on standby and is prepared to go to Pakistan if we deem that a necessary use of his time.”
Leavitt suggested the United States and Iran were closer to a deal, but declined to elaborate when asked if the Trump administration had received a peace proposal from Iranian leaders.
“We've certainly seen some progress from the Iranian side in recent days”she said.
Iran's willingness to resume negotiations with the US marks a reversal from earlier in the week, when Tehran refused to send its negotiating team to Islamabad in protest at the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. A few hours later, Trump extended the blockade indefinitely, while also agreeing to extend the truce between the two countries.
The new talks come as Trump and his administration officials indicate the war could last longer than the president initially suggested when it began in February. Asked about a timetable for ending the conflict, Trump told reporters Thursday: “Don't rush me.”
Trump also suggested he would be willing to tolerate, “for a while”rising fuel prices caused by the conflict, in exchange for preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Already, gasoline is about a dollar more expensive per gallon than before the conflict broke out, a worrisome signal for Republicans ahead of November's midterm elections, the publication notes.
Earlier on Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth continued to threaten further strikes on Iranian targets and said the US had “all the time in the world” to achieve their goals in Iran.
Vance's previous visit to Islamabad represented the highest-level negotiations between US and Iranian leaders since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. However, Vance returned from that trip with no concrete results, insisting that any deal must include a commitment by Iran not to pursue the ability to build a nuclear weapon.
