US Vice President JD Vance left for Islamabad on Friday to lead an American delegation that would hold talks with Iranian representatives.
The talks take place during a two-week halt in the US-Israeli war on Iran, which began with the former launching attacks on the latter on February 28.
Pakistan, which has positioned itself as a central facilitator for talks between the two sides and an appeal by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif earlier this week led to a pause in the fighting, with negotiations scheduled for Saturday.
Before leaving for Pakistan, Vance told reporters at Joint Base Andrews that he was looking forward to the upcoming negotiations with Iran and that he expected the talks in Islamabad to be positive.
He also said US President Donald Trump gave him “some pretty clear guidelines” on negotiations.
Vance further stated: “As the US president 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 that the negotiating team is not that receptive.”
Separately, United States President Donald Trump said on Friday his country is loading warships with “best weapons ever made” as a US delegation is headed to Pakistan for talks with Iran, warning force could be used if no deal is reached.
“We have a reset going. We’re loading up the ships with the best ammunition, the best weapons ever made,” Trump said in an interview with the New York Post, adding that the weapons are “even better than what we did previously”.
“And if we don’t have a deal, we will be using them, and we will be using them very effectively,” he said.
Asked if he thinks the talks would be successful, Trump responded: “We’re going to find out in about 24 hours. We’re going to know soon.”
“The Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways,” Trump posted. “The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!” he said in a Truth Social post.
In the United States, consumer prices rose 3.3% in March from a year earlier, the Labor Department reported Friday.