He headed to Pakistan to negotiate with Iranian leaders.
By Catholics for Catholics
Stop dilly-dallying.
In a nutshell, that is the message Vice President JD Vance had for Iran on Friday: not to “play” the U.S. as he headed overseas for negotiations aimed at ending the war.
According to a story by Newsmax, President Donald Trump is sending the member of his inner circle who has seemed to be the most unenthusiastic defender of the 6-week-old conflict with Iran to now find a solution and stave off the U.S. president’s flabbergasting threat to wipe out its “whole civilization.”
In the past, Vance has been uncertain of foreign military interventions and candid about the option of sending troops into open-ended conflicts. But on Friday he went to lead mediated talks with Iran in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.
As he boarded on Air Force Two which was headed to Pakistan, the vice president said, “We’re looking forward to the negotiation. I think it’s gonna be positive. We’ll of course see.”
Nevertheless, Vance said he had hope that the mediation would turn out well: “If the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we’re certainly willing to extend the open hand. If they’re gonna try and play us, then they’re gonna find that the negotiating team is not that receptive.”
For Vance, it’s his most pivotal mission yet, as he spent much of last year as more of a backdrop participant in the Trump White House, especially as others like Elon Musk and Rubio took turns as ever-present advisers for the president.
Still, Vance’s agenda is filling up fast, first with the task to root out fraud in government programs at home and now to help solve a U.S. war in the Middle East, where matters are so complicated some see it as a mission impossible.
A veteran who served in the Iraq War while in the Marines and spent two years as a U.S. senator for Ohio and a little more than one as vice president, Vance has little diplomatic experience.
On Wednesday, he dismissed speculation that the Iranians requested that he join the talks, telling reporters: “I don’t know that. I would be surprised if that was true. But, you know, I wanted to be involved because I thought I could make a difference.”
