President Donald Trump said he doesn’t care if Iran returns to the negotiating table after Vice President JD Vance failed to reach a diplomatic agreement to end the war.
Vance was joined over the weekend by the president’s special envoys to the Middle East, real estate developer Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, for a marathon 21-hour meeting with their Iranian counterparts in Islamabad, Pakistan.
The talks ended with an impasse, which Vance blamed on Iran’s alleged refusal to rule out developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, meanwhile, has said it has the right to enrich uranium for its civilian energy program, and blasted the U.S. negotiators for failing to “gain the trust of the Iranian delegation.”
Asked Sunday how long it might be before Iranian officials agree to resume talks, Trump, 79, said he didn’t know—and didn’t care.
“I don’t care if they come back or not,” he told reporters after flying back to Washington from Florida. “If they don’t come back, I’m fine.”
He insisted that Iran is in “very bad shape” and “very desperate” following the failed talks, and repeated Vance’s claim that the Iranians are pushing for a nuclear weapon.
“And just so you understand, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” he added. “They still want it, and they made that clear the other night. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.”
Iran’s nuclear program is just one of several sticking points that is said to have tanked the negotiations.
The U.S. wants Iran to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow shipping lane that has been a bottleneck for global oil supplies since the war began on Feb. 28, without transit tolls, and to agree to end its support for proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Iran is demanding control of the Strait of Hormuz, war reparations, a lifting of sanctions, and a region-wide ceasefire, including an end to Israel’s attacks on Lebanon.
The president responded to the stalemate by declaring the U.S. Navy would blockade “all ships trying to enter or leave the Strait of Hormuz.”
He also revived his threat to target Iran’s civilian infrastructure and is considering breaking his own ceasefire agreement by resuming full strikes on Iran, sources told The Wall Street Journal.
The White House told the Daily Beast in a statement that Trump “wisely keeps all additional options on the table,” and that anyone who thinks they know what the president will do next is “purely speculating.”
