Trump dispatches Vance, Kushner to Islamabad for Iran "nuclear de-escalation" talks

Washington DC [US], April 20 : US President Donald Trump on Monday confirmed that a high-level American negotiating team, including Vice President JD Vance, Jared Kushner, and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, is en route to Pakistan to initiate critical negotiations with the Iranian leadership.
In an interview with the New York Post, Trump made it clear that the objective of the mission is not merely a regional truce but the complete dismantling of Iran's nuclear capabilities.
On the US team going to Pakistan, he said, "They're heading over now...They'll be there tonight, [Islamabad] time."
Trump told the New York Post that the talks rest on one non-negotiable demand-- Iran to give up on its nuclear pursuits.
"Get rid of their nuclear weapons. That's all very simple," he said. "There will be no nuclear weapon."
While Trump expressed a willingness to meet directly with senior Iranian leaders should a breakthrough occur, he warned that the alternative to a deal would be catastrophic. When pressed on the consequences of a collapse in negotiations, he was blunt, "Well, I don't want to get into that with you. You can imagine. It wouldn't be pretty."
The diplomatic mission faces immediate hurdles. Earlier Monday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry, via the Tasnim News Agency, stated it currently has "no plans" for a second round of negotiations, citing US "bad faith" and the recent maritime blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump, however, brushed off the deterrent rhetoric from Tehran, saying, "nobody is playing games" and that both sides are "supposed to have the talks."
"We're supposed to have the talks...So I would assume at this point nobody's playing games", he told the New York Post.
"I have no problem meeting them," he said. "If they want to meet, and we have some very capable people, but I have no problem meeting them."
The delegation is expected to touch down in Islamabad tonight (local time), where Pakistani mediators, led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army chief Asim Munir, have established a high-security "Red Zone" for the summit.
This second round follows a gruelling 21-hour marathon of talks held on April 11-12, which ended in a stalemate.
With the ceasefire set to lapse on Wednesday, the Islamabad talks represent the final diplomatic off-ramp before a potential escalation into full-scale infrastructure warfare. While the US maintains that a "fair and reasonable" deal is on the table, the Iranian leadership's refusal to negotiate under the "shadow of a blockade" suggests that the 21-hour marathon of the previous round may have been just a prelude to a much darker confrontation.