WASHINGTON (The Thursday Times) — US Vice President JD Vance has spent the past two weeks personally working on indirect talks with Iran for a new ceasefire and a return to nuclear negotiations, speaking almost every day to Field Marshal Asim Munir and to Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, two sources with direct knowledge of the talks said.
Vance and the Pakistani and Qatari mediators have discussed holding a working-level technical meeting between the United States and Iran in the coming days, though it has not yet taken place, the sources said. The White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s adviser and son-in-law, are also involved. The vice president’s office declined to comment.
“We’re talking to them,” Trump told reporters on Friday when asked what his message to Iran was. US officials and regional sources say he is willing, for now, to let the diplomacy play out, though the military is ready to resume strikes at relatively short notice if he changes his mind.
The letter: two weeks ago Vance wrote to Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and one of the closest confidants of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, proposing a return to direct negotiations. Iranian officials said the letter had created positive momentum. Sources involved in the mediation say there has been progress, but that it has been very slow.
Vance was the most sceptical voice in Trump’s inner circle before the war began at the end of February, and on Wednesday he said the war was the main reason Republicans lost this week’s midterm elections. He led the US team at the Islamabad talks in April, worked on the US-Iran memorandum of understanding in June, and led a round of direct talks in Switzerland that ended with Iran agreeing to invite UN inspectors to its nuclear sites. The memorandum collapsed after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards resumed attacks on shipping.
On Friday Trump also spoke to the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, about Qatar’s efforts to close the gaps. The emir stressed the need to “continue dialogue and pursuing diplomatic means to resolve differences, spare the region further escalation, and ensure freedom of maritime navigation and the security of energy supplies”, his office said.
