When US Vice President JD Vance boarded his flight to Islamabad, Pakistan, on Friday morning in Washington, DC, he struck a relatively upbeat, more conciliatory tone than his boss, President Donald Trump, ahead of the high-stakes ceasefire talks with Iran.
"We’re looking forward to the negotiation. I think it's going to be positive," Vance told reporters of the negotiations slated for Saturday morning and mediated by Pakistan, a friendly nation to both sides.
“As the president of the United States said, if the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we're certainly willing to extend the open hand. If they're going to try to play us, then they're going to find the negotiating team is not that receptive."
In a series of posts on Truth Social on Friday, Trump declared that Iran has "no cards" and that its public relations strategy is better than its warfighting ability.
"The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!" he wrote.
