Donald Trump has said that the US has no plan B if crisis talks fall apart in Islamabad.
Iranian and US officials have travelled to the Pakistani capital in an attempt to broker a deal, days after a two-week ceasefire was agreed to halt hostilities between the two countries on Tuesday.
But the US president admitted there was no backup option prepared should the talks not yield a breakthrough.
He insisted the US didn’t need one as Iran’s military had been ‘defeated’ and the nation’s weapons manufacturing capabilities hit ‘very hard’.
Trump told reporters this morning: ‘We’ll find out what’s going on. They’re militarily defeated.’
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The president’s bullish rhetoric echoed his words on Truth Social, where he wrote on Friday that Iran had ‘no cards’ except for ‘short term extortion of the World using International Waterways’.
‘The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!’, he wrote.
Vice president JD Vance said he was hopeful of a positive outcome as he headed to Pakistan to lead the US delegation.
But he warned: ‘If they’re going to try to play us, then they’re going to find the negotiating team is not that receptive.’
Vance landed this morning in Pakistan along with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Iran’s delegation, headed up by parliamentary speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and foreign minister Abbas Araqchi arrived on Friday dressed in black as a symbol of mourning for late supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
The crucial talks have locked down Islamabad’s population of two million, with a large military presence on the city’s streets.
Preliminary talks have been so far been conducted with both sides in different rooms.
If the Iranian and US delegations meet, it will be the first face-to-face negotiations between the two nations since 2015.
High up on demands from the Iranian side is a ceasefire in Lebanon, where Israel has continued to exchange military operations with Hezbollah. Both sides are due to hold talks in Washington on Tuesday.
A senior source said that the US would give its initial response to Iranian conditions through Pakistani officials, a key factor in determining whether negotiators from both sides will meet.
Iran has also suggested it will demand the lifting of economic sanctions which have crippled its economy.
It also wants authority over the all important Strait of Hormuz, thus allowing it to charge ships for safe passage through critical oil chokepoint.
Iranian officials were cautiously optimistic of progress at the crunch talks, but warned that trust was low between sides.
Fovernment spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani told state TV that Iran would negotiate ‘with our finger on the trigger’.
He said: ‘While we are open to talks, we are also fully aware of the lack of trust; therefore, Iran’s diplomatic team is entering this process with maximum caution.’
Early today US officials denied a claim by Iran that they had agreed to release frozen assets in Qatar and other foreign banks.
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