‘Vance Trip for Iran Peace Talks Delayed, Summoned to White House’
Vice President JD Vance was expected to board a plane and lead a U. S. negotiating team in talks in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, but was unexpectedly called back to the White House on Tuesday amid uncertainty over Iran’s participation. CNN’s Alayna Treene reported that Vance will not go to Islamabad as planned, but he will go to policy meetings at the White House on Tuesday. Sources told Treene that it is still unclear if Vance’s trip will happen at all. “We don’t know if this trip is definitely off,” she told The Situation Room anchors Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown. “All we do know is that it is definitely delayed and that we should expect to see now the vice president at the White House for meetings today, not leaving this morning on that plane as we had previously reported.”
The VP said the Iranians refused to agree to the main point the Americans were seeking – an “affirmative commitment” the country will not pursue nuclear weapons. The meeting failed to result in a deal being made. “The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement,” Vance said at the time. “And I think that’s bad news for Iran, much more than it’s bad news for the United States of America. ”
Since the U. S. started blocking ships from entering or leaving Iranian ports, U. S. Central Command said on Tuesday that U. S. forces have told 28 ships to turn around or go back to port. A U. S. official declined to say whether any ships have entered Iranian ports, but they stated that, if any have, they would be unable to get past the blockade in the Gulf of Oman when they leave.
