Donald Trump has said that the US has no plan B if crisis talks crumble in Islamabad.
Iranian and US officials have travelled to the Pakistani capital in an try to broker a deal, days after a two-week ceasefire was agreed to halt hostilities between the 2 countries on Tuesday.
However the US president admitted there was no backup option prepared should the talks not yield a breakthrough.
He insisted the US didn’t need one as Iran’s military had been ‘defeated’ and the nation’s weapons manufacturing capabilities hit ‘very hard’.
Trump told reporters this morning: ‘We’ll discover what’s happening. They’re militarily defeated.’
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The president’s bullish rhetoric echoed his words on Truth Social, where he wrote on Friday that Iran had ‘no cards’ aside from ‘short term extortion of the World using International Waterways’.
‘The one reason they’re alive today is to barter!’, he wrote.
Vp JD Vance said he was hopeful of a positive consequence as he headed to Pakistan to steer the US delegation.
But he warned: ‘In the event that they’re going to attempt to play us, then they’re going to seek out the negotiating team shouldn’t be that receptive.’
Vance landed this morning in Pakistan together with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Iran’s delegation, headed up by parliamentary speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and foreign minister Abbas Araqchi arrived on Friday wearing black as a logo of mourning for late supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
The crucial talks have locked down Islamabad’s population of two million, with a big military presence on the town’s streets.
Preliminary talks have been up to now been conducted with either side in several rooms.
If the Iranian and US delegations meet, it’s going to be the primary face-to-face negotiations between the 2 nations since 2015.
High up on demands from the Iranian side is a ceasefire in Lebanon, where Israel has continued to exchange military operations with Hezbollah. Each side are on account of hold talks in Washington on Tuesday.
A senior source said that the US would give its initial response to Iranian conditions through Pakistani officials, a key consider determining whether negotiators from either side will meet.
Iran has also suggested it’s going to demand the lifting of economic sanctions which have crippled its economy.
It also wants authority over the all necessary Strait of Hormuz, thus allowing it to charge ships for protected passage through critical oil chokepoint.
Iranian officials were cautiously optimistic of progress on the crunch talks, but warned that trust was low between sides.
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Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani told state TV that Iran would negotiate ‘with our finger on the trigger’.
He said: ‘While we’re open to talks, we’re also fully aware of the dearth of trust; subsequently, Iran’s diplomatic team is entering this process with maximum caution.’
Early today US officials denied a claim by Iran that they’d agreed to release frozen assets in Qatar and other foreign banks.
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