US Vice President J.D. Vance is reportedly headed to Islamabad for potential talks as the deadline for the current ceasefire looms
Iranian officials have struck a defiant tone ahead of a possible new round of talks with Washington, warning that Tehran is prepared to “reveal new cards on the battlefield” while rejecting any negotiations conducted “under the shadow of threats.”
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused US President Donald Trump of trying to turn negotiations into “a table of surrender,” and said Iran has spent the past two weeks preparing new military options.
“Trump, by imposing a siege and violating the ceasefire, seeks to turn this negotiating table – in his own imagination – into a table of surrender or to justify renewed warmongering. We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats, and in the past two weeks, we have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield,” Ghalibaf wrote on X.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the “non-constructive and contradictory” conduct of US officials sent the message that Washington is seeking Iran’s surrender, adding that Iranians “will not bow to coercion.”
The temporary ceasefire brokered by Pakistan is set to expire on Wednesday, after the first round of talks in Islamabad last weekend failed to produce a breakthrough and Trump imposed a US military blockade of Iranian ports.
Trump warned on Sunday that if Iran doesn’t accept his administration’s “fair and reasonable deal,” the US will “knock out every single power plant, and every single bridge, in Iran.”
The US president initially announced the second round of talks for Monday, and the White House reportedly spent the day waiting for confirmation that Tehran would send its negotiating team. Axios reported later in the day that US Vice President J.D. Vance, alongside Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, was expected to leave for Islamabad by Tuesday morning.
According to Axios, Iranian negotiators had been stalling amid reported pressure from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to take a harder line and refuse talks unless the US first ends its blockade. The report claimed that Pakistani, Egyptian, and Turkish mediators had urged Tehran to attend, and that Iran’s team reportedly received the green light from the supreme leader on Monday night.
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