United States Vice President JD Vance departed Washington on Friday, April 10, 2026, for Islamabad, Pakistan, to lead the highest-level American diplomatic engagement with Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, as a fragile two-week ceasefire showed signs of unravelling before peace talks could even begin.
Vance will be joined in Islamabad by Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Iran’s delegation will be led by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander.
The meeting represents the highest-level contact between Washington and Tehran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, arriving at a critical juncture in ceasefire negotiations that could collapse and trigger a resumption of hostilities.
The United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire on April 7 after nearly six weeks of fighting that disrupted global energy markets and spread instability across a large portion of the Middle East. Trump conditioned the truce on Iran’s complete and immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily oil supply passes.
The ceasefire, however, ran into trouble almost immediately. By April 9, there was no sign that the agreement to lift the Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz was being implemented, with ships once again being prevented from crossing. Abu Dhabi National Oil Company Chief Executive Sultan Al Jaber said the strait was still effectively closed, with Iran restricting and conditioning traffic, while 230 loaded oil tankers sat waiting inside the Gulf.
Trump took to his Truth Social platform to voice his frustration, writing that Iran was doing “a very poor job” of honouring the deal. “Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonorable some would say,” Trump posted, adding: “That is not the agreement we have!”
Iran, for its part, accused Israel of violating the ceasefire through continued heavy strikes on Lebanon, while the Trump administration insisted that Lebanon was never part of the agreement. Pakistan, which brokered the truce, had explicitly stated otherwise.
Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, has held multiple calls with American and Iranian leaders as part of an intensive mediation effort Islamabad has led since late March. Pakistan hosted foreign ministers from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt on March 29 in a coordinated push to end the hostilities.
Vance’s longstanding opposition to open-ended foreign military involvement has raised questions about his backing for the war against Iran. Reports indicate he raised doubts in prewar administration meetings, and while in Budapest on Wednesday, he struck a notably less aggressive tone than Trump, stating that the United States had “largely accomplished its military objectives” and that the conflict would shortly conclude.
Iran’s 10-point proposal for peace calls for Iranian oversight of the Strait of Hormuz, the withdrawal of American combat forces from the Middle East, and a halt to military operations against allied armed groups. The United States has not formally accepted these terms, though Trump described the plan as “workable.” Washington’s core non-negotiable demand remains Iran’s surrender of its enriched uranium stockpile, a position Tehran has not officially accepted.
Some experts remain deeply skeptical that the Islamabad talks will produce a substantive, long-term agreement, noting that no regime change has occurred in Iran and that Tehran now holds greater leverage over the Strait of Hormuz than it did before the war began.
