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Vice President JD Vance boarded Air Force Two Friday for Islamabad, where he will lead U.S. negotiations with Iran alongside Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
He warned Tehran on the tarmac that any attempt to "play" the American delegation would be met with a team that is "not that receptive", while saying he expected the talks to be "positive" if Iran negotiated in good faith.
Speaking briefly to reporters before departure, Vance delivered both the optimism and the warning in the same breath.
"We're looking forward to the negotiation. I think it's going to be positive," Vance said.
"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 that the negotiating team is not that receptive. So we're going to try to have a positive negotiation," he noted.
"The president gave us some pretty clear guidelines, and we're going to see," he said.
Vance did not take questions from reporters traveling with him.
Vance confirmed Trump had personally set the parameters for the talks without elaborating on the specifics.
The delegation heading to Islamabad includes Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, three figures from Trump's innermost circle.
Vance has long been skeptical of foreign military interventions and outspoken about open-ended conflicts.
Trump has now tasked him with finding a resolution to the war that began six weeks ago, the same conflict Vance appeared most reluctant to defend publicly within the administration.
The talks come as the two-week ceasefire appears to be on the precipice of collapse.
The chasm between Iran's publicly stated demands, including U.S. military withdrawal from the region, full sanctions removal and Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz, and Washington's positions appears significant.
Israel's continued strikes on Lebanon have further complicated the framework.
In the United States, growing political and economic pressure to resolve the conflict adds another dimension to Vance's mission, one that carries weight for his own political future if he seeks the presidency in two years.
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