{"id":61583,"date":"2026-04-10T23:13:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T23:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/61583\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T23:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T23:13:07","slug":"vance-warns-iran-not-to-play-us-ahead-of-diplomatic-mission-in-pakistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/61583\/","title":{"rendered":"Vance warns Iran not to ‘play us’ ahead of diplomatic mission in Pakistan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Vice President JD Vance departed Friday for Islamabad, Pakistan, to open the first direct negotiations aimed at ending the war between the United States and Iran. <\/p>\n

Together with a delegation of deeply mistrusting negotiators from Tehran, Vance is tasked with striking a lasting peace between rival nations that have failed to keep promises made days ago in a delicate last-minute ceasefire. Ongoing military activity in the Middle East and disagreements over Iran\u2019s control of key shipping routes have left the diplomatic effort vulnerable to collapse before the talks even begin. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we\u2019re certainly willing to extend the open hand,\u201d Vance told reporters before boarding Air Force Two. \u201cIf they\u2019re gonna try and play us, then they\u2019re gonna find that the negotiating team is not that receptive.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, President Trump called off his plans to unleash \u201chell\u201d on Iran based on assurances that it would lift its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, but traffic through the vital waterway was still at a trickle Friday, as more than 600 ships remained stranded in the Persian Gulf, according to marine tracking data. Trump accused Iran on Thursday of doing a \u201cvery poor job, dishonorable some would say,\u201d of allowing oil through the strait. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iranians don\u2019t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways. The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!\u201d he wrote on Truth Social<\/a> on Friday. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Lebanon has emerged as the central dispute threatening to derail the talks before they begin. <\/p>\n

Hours after the ceasefire took effect, Israel launched what Lebanese officials described as its heaviest wave of strikes since the war started, killing at least 303 people, according to local health officials. <\/p>\n

Jerusalem argues the Lebanese front is still on the table, but Iran and Pakistan disagree. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iran\u2013U.S. Ceasefire terms are clear and explicit: the U.S. must choose \u2014 ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both,\u201d Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said this week. \u201cThe world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the U.S. court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vance has acknowledged a \u201clegitimate misunderstanding\u201d over whether Lebanon was included in the ceasefire terms, telling reporters Washington never made that promise.<\/p>\n

Separate negotiations regarding Lebanon are expected next week in Washington, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun confirmed Friday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also OKd the talks, but said a ceasefire is not possible.<\/p>\n

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and the Iranian delegation arrived early Saturday in Islamabad, Iranian state media reported. Hours earlier he said a ceasefire in Lebanon \u201cmust be fulfilled before negotiations begin.\u201d <\/p>\n

Bagher Qalibaf added a second condition \u2014 the release of frozen Iranian assets \u2014 which he suggested must be returned before Tehran takes its seat at the bargaining table. Little is known about the halted Iranian funds overseas, but such assets are typically held back as a result of U.S.-imposed sanctions.<\/p>\n

The vice president\u2019s role in peace talks has grown in recent weeks. Administration officials have cast Vance as one of the few leaders Tehran would be willing to engage with directly. With a global economy upended by Trump\u2019s far-reaching military ambitions, a victory in Islamabad could spike Vance\u2019s standing as a prospect to lead the GOP post-Trump. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s if he\u2019s able to take pressure off American wallets with an agreement that liberates Iran\u2019s grip over the strait, which has choked off much of the world\u2019s oil supply.<\/p>\n

Americans have continued to feel the fallout at the gas pump and grocery stores, as U.S. inflation climbed to 3.3% in March, the highest annual rate in nearly two years<\/a>, according to the data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.<\/p>\n

Monthly prices rose 0.9%, a sharp increase from February\u2019s 0.3% monthly rise, when annual inflation sat at 2.4%, the new data showed.<\/p>\n

The White House characterized the rising inflation as a short-term disruption caused by the Iran war, while noting that the administration is \u201cdiligently working to mitigate\u201d rising costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the Administration ensures the free flow of energy through the Strait of Hormuz, the American economy remains on a solid trajectory thanks to the Administration\u2019s robust supply-side agenda of tax cuts, deregulation, and energy abundance,\u201d White House spokesperson Kush Desai wrote on X.<\/p>\n

Britain announced a meeting next week with dozens of countries to coordinate efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The summit will focus on countering Iran\u2019s proposal to charge transit tolls to allow ships through the waterway. <\/p>\n

In a televised address to the nation, Pakistan\u2019s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif spoke of a \u201cdevastating storm of inflation\u201d if peace talks don\u2019t succeed in freeing up the Middle East\u2019s oil supply. He characterized the current stage as a \u201cmake-or-break moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will make every possible effort to ensure the success of the peace process,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Vice President JD Vance departed Friday for Islamabad, Pakistan, to open the first direct negotiations aimed at ending…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4724,23479,3065,5405,102,34,15018,93,8071,650,722,1219,14029,1257,1142],"class_list":{"0":"post-61583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-administration-official","9":"tag-annual-inflation","10":"tag-ceasefire","11":"tag-friday","12":"tag-hormuz","13":"tag-iran","14":"tag-islamabad","15":"tag-lebanon","16":"tag-next-week","17":"tag-pakistan","18":"tag-president-trump","19":"tag-strait","20":"tag-talk","21":"tag-vance","22":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116382951237058601","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}