One photograph could define this weekend in Islamabad. If US Vice President JD Vance is pictured next to Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, it would record the highest-level face-to-face contact between the two countries since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the BBC reported.
Warmth is not on the agenda. Neither man is likely to smile for the camera, and a handshake is far from certain. The relationship stays hostile whatever happens in the room. Still, sitting down at all would show that both sides want to stop a war that has sent shocks around the world, steer clear of a more dangerous escalation, and try for a deal through diplomacy.
The ceasefire that set up the meeting is shaky. It lasts two weeks, and its terms were disputed and broken from the moment it was announced earlier in the week. President Donald Trump has predicted a “peace deal” inside that window. The BBC gave that forecast zero chance.
Doubt hung over the trip until the last moment. Iran left everyone guessing about whether its delegation would turn up, and Israel was insisting there would be no ceasefire in Lebanon.
If serious, sustained talks do get going, they would be the most significant diplomatic push since 2018. That year Trump, in his first term, pulled the United States out of the previous landmark nuclear deal. He called the agreement, widely seen as the foreign policy high point of the Obama administration, the “worst deal in history”.
Sources
Sources
- Trump tells Iran to negotiate as Vance heads to Pakistan… – BBC News
- US Iran war live news: Trump says Strait of… | Moneycontrol News
