Iranian officials have apparently refused to continue talks with President Donald Trump's two closest allies behind key negotiations in the Middle East, according to reports on Tuesday.
Negotiations involving Iran, Pakistan and the United States were expected to take place in Islamabad as early as this week or next; however, Trump's picks to discuss the ongoing military conflict were reportedly not wanted at the table, The Guardian reported.
Instead, another top Trump administration official was under consideration to join the talks: Vice President JD Vance.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has suggested his country would be willing to help "facilitate meaningful and conclusive talks" and end the conflict.
"Pakistani sources said the US vice-president, JD Vance, was being put forward as a probable chief negotiator from the US side if talks went ahead," according to The Guardian. "Iranian sources have said they would refuse to sit down with Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, or Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who led the nuclear negotiations with Iran before the war."
Kushner and Witkoff were involved in talks with Iran prior to the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes that launched on Feb. 28. Since the war started, Iranian officials have reportedly decided they do not want to engage with the two men. Iran has suggested that the two knowingly misled Iranian officials during prior negotiations and were planning the attack all along, despite the closed-door conversations.
"With the previous negotiating team, there’s no chance," one diplomatic source told The Guardian. "The Iranian side regards the request for negotiations as another round of deception for the US-Israeli regime to find out a loophole to aggravate the strikes again."