After returning from negotiations with Iranian officials in Pakistan, Vice President JD Vance said the next step toward future negotiations lies with Iran.
“It’s a question that would be best put to the Iranians because the ball really is in their court,” Vance said on Fox News on Monday when asked by host Bret Baier if more talks would happen.
“We’ve made clear where we’re going to be accommodating, and we’ve made clear where we absolutely need to see the nuclear material come out of the country of Iran.”
Vance led a team of negotiators on April 11 for more than 21 hours of talks in Pakistan.
According to a U.S. official, the two parties did not reach an agreement on U.S. demands that included Iran’s ending all uranium enrichment; dismantling all major nuclear enrichment facilities; retrieving highly enriched uranium; accepting a broader peace, security, and de-escalation framework; ending funding for terrorist proxies; and fully opening the Strait of Hormuz.
While negotiators expected a brief table-setting meeting to set up future talks, the conversations turned into almost 24 hours of negotiations, the official told The Daily Signal.
Vance said he and his team left Pakistan because they learned that the Iranian negotiators were unable to cut a deal, as they needed prior approval from Tehran.
“Whether we have further conversations, whether we ultimately get to a deal, I really think the ball is in the Iranian court because we put a lot on the table,” he said.
“We actually made very clear what our red lines were. We also made clear, Bret, that we actually would be very happy—the president of the United States has said he would be very happy if Iran was treated like a normal country, if it had a normal economy, if its people were able to prosper and thrive.”
“But in order for Iran to be a normal country, economically, it’s going to have to be a normal country from the perspective of not pursuing a nuclear weapon,” he continued, “and it’s going to have to be a normal country from not pursuing terrorism.”
Vance said there’s a “grand deal” to be had between Iran and the United States, but the Iranians are responsible for taking the next step.
