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U.S. Vice President JD Vance has spent the past two weeks personally involved in indirect talks with Iran aimed at a new ceasefire and resuming nuclear negotiations, Axios reported, citing two sources with knowledge of the matter.
Vance has been speaking almost daily with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Pakistani Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir and other mediators, according to the report.
White House envoy Steve Witkoff and presidential adviser Jared Kushner are also involved.
Vance and the Qatari and Pakistani mediators have discussed a working-level technical meeting between the U.S. and Iran in the coming days, but it has not yet taken place, the sources said.
Vance’s involvement shows he is taking it upon himself to extract the U.S. from a conflict he blamed for Republicans' losses in Tuesday’s midterm elections and elevates the talks to the highest levels of the administration.
Two weeks ago, Vance sent a letter to Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and one of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s closest confidants, proposing a return to direct negotiations.
Iranian officials said the letter created positive momentum.
Vance was the most skeptical voice in Trump’s inner circle about the war before it began in late February.
He led the U.S. team at an April summit on Iran in Islamabad, was involved in talks that produced the June memorandum of understanding and led direct talks in Switzerland that ended with an Iranian commitment to invite U.N. inspectors.
The memorandum collapsed after the IRGC resumed attacks on ships.
U.S. officials and regional sources say Trump is, for now, willing to let diplomacy play out, though the military is ready to launch strikes on a relatively short timetable if he changes his mind.
"We’re talking to them," Trump told reporters Friday.
Mediation sources say there has been progress, but it has been very slow.
"For the past couple of weeks we have worked with colleagues in the U.S. administration who have a genuine intention to find a way to contain the situation and to de-escalate it," the Qatari prime minister said Friday.
He said talks continued after the midterms, though less actively "because they had other issues," and that a deal is possible.
Trump spoke Friday with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani about Doha’s efforts to bridge gaps on a deal. Sheikh Tamim stressed the need to "continue dialogue and pursue diplomatic means to resolve differences, spare the region further escalation, and ensure freedom of maritime navigation and the security of energy supplies," his office said.
On Friday, the U.S. military struck an anti-aircraft missile launcher on Qeshm Island after it fired a missile toward a U.S. fighter jet, Trump confirmed, as Vance’s Iran diplomacy continues.
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