Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent. He traveled with Vice President JD Vance to Islamabad, Pakistan.
After more than 16 straight hours of closed-door meetings that stretched into early Sunday morning, Vice President JD Vance ambled into an ornate ballroom in Pakistan and let out a sigh. When he arrived at the lectern to speak to the press, he grimaced.
He talked about “shortcomings,” “bad news,” and not being “able to make headway.” The United States and Iran did not reach any agreement.
Exhausted and frustrated after 21 hours on the ground, Mr. Vance provided few details, took three questions, and departed. He did not address whether the two-week cease-fire with Iran would hold, or what would happen to the Strait of Hormuz or if President Trump would now follow through with his threat to wipe Iranian civilization off the map.
It was a remarkable conclusion to a high-stakes diplomatic trip for Mr. Vance, who made his opposition known to a full-scale war in Iran. America’s allies and adversaries alike were pinning their hopes on Mr. Vance to find a way out of a conflict that has upended the global economy, frayed alliances, and expanded to the wider region.
Instead, he left with nothing. He blamed Iran for the failed talks, saying the United States sought a commitment that Iran would not seek a nuclear weapon, and it refused.
That it was Mr. Vance who found himself in this position was extraordinary in itself. The man inside Mr. Trump’s inner circle most opposed to the war was tasked with leading the highest-level talks between the United States and Iran in nearly 50 years. Mr. Trump, for his part, was thousands of miles away at the Kaseya Center in Miami, watching a U.F.C. fight alongside Marco Rubio, his secretary of state and national security adviser.
For Mr. Vance, the trip represented the highest-profile assignment of his tenure, which has largely been marked by domestic politics. White House officials had hoped he would be spending the months leading up to the midterms traveling the country to boost the Republican Party. Instead, he spent the early part of the week in Hungary campaigning for Prime Minister Viktor Orban and concluded it in Pakistan, trying to negotiate the end of a messy and complicated war.
The United States and Israel have spent more than five weeks bombing Iran. They have assassinated the supreme leader and other senior officials, hit 13,000 target,s and, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, killed more than 1,700 civilians. Iran responded by launching attacks at countries across the region, including U.S. military bases, and effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz.
Vice President Vance, left, meeting with Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, in Islamabad on Saturday.Credit…Pool photo by Jacquelyn Martin
And now, Mr. Trump must decide what to do next: return to the negotiating table or resume a deadly and costly conflict that has already created the largest energy disruption in modern times. On Sunday, he partly answered the question by announcing a naval blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, which is generally considered an act of war.
‘Extend the Open Hand’
Mr. Vance started his trip to Pakistan striking a cautiously optimistic tone, telling reporters that the United States would “extend the open hand” if Iran were “willing to negotiate in good faith.”
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But as Mr. Vance set off from Washington, with a brief refueling stop in Paris, the details of how the negotiations would take place remained unclear.
Iranian officials repeatedly threatened to refuse direct meetings if the United States did not accede to various demands, including unfreezing Iran’s overseas assets and expanding the cease-fire to include Lebanon. The latter demand underscored the degree to which many events of this war are out of U.S. control: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has expressed the desire to continue fighting with Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy.
And in the hours leading up to the meeting, even once the vice president was on the ground in Islamabad, disagreements were spilling out into the press. Some Iranian officials told media outlets that the United States had agreed to unfreeze Iranian assets held in Qatar and foreign banks before the meetings began as a sign of good faith. The United States said those reports were false.
Iranian state media then reported the American team was confused.
Foreign trips by U.S. presidents or vice presidents are usually highly-scripted affairs, with detailed schedules and planned deliverables. Advance teams travel far ahead of the principal to iron out the details, building minute-by-minute timetables.
Mr. Vance’s team had only a few days.
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Vice President Vance is arriving for a news conference after meeting with representatives from Pakistan and Iran in Islamabad on Sunday. Credit…Pool photo by Jacquelyn Martin
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Vice President Vance is arriving for a news conference after meeting with representatives from Pakistan and Iran in Islamabad on Sunday. Credit…Pool photo by Jacquelyn Martin
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