As the world watches with bated breath, US negotiators led by Vice President JD Vance are set to meet a 71-member Iranian delegation headed by Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf in Islamabad.
Hours before the talks, President Donald Trump told The New York Post that US warships are being reloaded with “the best ammunition” to resume strikes on Iran if the negotiations fail.
Trump spoke shortly after Vance departed for Islamabad talks, where he will be joined by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner to negotiate a final peace process following a two-week ceasefire reached on April 7.
“We’re going to find out in about 24 hours. We’re going to know soon,” Trump said in a phone interview to New York Post when asked if he believed the talks would succeed.
“We have a reset going. We’re loading up the ships with the best ammunition, the best weapons ever made , even better than what we did previously, and we blew them apart,” he added.
“But we’re loading up the ships. We’re loading up the ships with the best weapons ever made, even at a higher level than we used to do a complete decimation. And if we don’t have a deal, we will be using them, and we will be using them very effectively,” Trump told The New York Post.
On the contrary, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, part of the Iranian delegation, has maintained in pre-war talks that Iran has an inalienable right to enrich uranium.
Meanwhile, Ghalibaf reminded that two clauses of the deal are yet to be implemented and wrote on X,“Two of the measures mutually agreed upon between the parties have yet to be implemented: a ceasefire in Lebanon and the release of Iran’s blocked assets prior to the commencement of negotiations.
These two matters must be fulfilled before negotiations begin.”
“You’re dealing against people that we don’t know whether or not they tell the truth,” Trump told The Post. “To our face, they’re getting rid of all nuclear weapons, everything’s gone. And then they go out to the press and say, ‘No, we’d like to enrich.’ So we’ll find out.”
Trump also criticized Iran over its handling of the Strait of Hormuz, calling the situation “dishonorable” and saying, “We’ve got the team going to Pakistan to negotiate with the Iranians. And we also have backup plans if necessary.”
As Iran has clearly indicated that it will be imposing transit fees for ships in Hormuz and that too in Rial.
The talks are expected to focus on US demands that Iran hand over an estimated 1,000 pounds of deeply buried enriched uranium and fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his German counterpart, Johann Wadephul, that Iran enters the negotiations with the US in “complete distrust.”
Araghchi emphasized that Iran “will fight with full authority to secure the interests and rights of the Iranian people,” citing repeated U.S. breaches of promises and “betrayals of diplomacy.”
Ghalibaf also stressed that a ceasefire in Lebanon and the release of Iran’s blocked assets are prerequisites for commencing talks with the United States. A 10-point proposal forwarded by Iran, which Trump has called a “workable basis on which to negotiate and the main framework for these talks,” explicitly ties a ceasefire to an end of aggression on all fronts, including against Lebanon.
Since Trump’s announcement, however, Israeli strikes on Lebanon have escalated, killing hundreds, including women and children.
Ghalibaf reminded that Iran has a bad historical experience with U.S. diplomacy. “Twice within less than a year, in the middle of negotiations, and despite the Iranian side’s good faith, they attacked us and committed numerous war crimes,” he said.
