Good question. Here’s another: Were the Iranians ready for Islamabad I?
Pakistan may have succeeded in getting the band back together again after all. The Jerusalem Post reports that both the US and the IRGC remnant regime have begun arranging a return to negotiations in Islamabad, perhaps as soon as Friday. At least, that’s what the Pakistanis say:
Negotiating teams from the US and Iran could return to Islamabad this week, four sources said on Tuesday, days after the highest-level talks between the two countries since the 1979 Islamic Revolution ended in the Pakistani capital without a breakthrough. …
A proposal has been shared with both the US and Iran to resend their delegates to resume the talks, the first source said.
Two Pakistani sources with knowledge of the talks said Islamabad was communicating with the two sides about the timing of the next round and the meeting would likely take place on the weekend.
“We have reached out to Iran and we got a positive response that they will be open to a second round of talks,” a senior Pakistani government official said.
That may be what the Pakistanis say, and what one “senior Iranian source” tells the Jerusalem Post. It’s not what the regime is saying, though:
NEW 🔴
Iranian sources deny reports of an agreement to hold the next round of talks in Islamabad, saying there is “still no information about an agreement to hold talks in Islamabad or in other formats.”
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) April 14, 2026
That may not mean much. The Iranian regime routinely lies about talks until they start. And as J.D. Vance discovered in Islamabad I, they mainly lie after they start, too. The New York Times has a brief recap on how Vance got quickly disillusioned about the nature of talks with the Iranian regime:
Iranian officials repeatedly threatened to refuse direct meetings if the United States did not accede to various demands, including unfreezing Iran’s overseas assets and expanding the cease-fire to include Lebanon. The latter demand underscored the degree to which many events of this war are out of U.S. control: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has expressed the desire to continue fighting with Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy.
And in the hours leading up to the meeting, even once the vice president was on the ground in Islamabad, disagreements were spilling out into the press. Some Iranian officials told media outlets that the United States had agreed to unfreeze Iranian assets held in Qatar and foreign banks before the meetings began as a sign of good faith. The United States said those reports were false.
Iranian state media then reported the American team was confused.
What about the US now? The White House isn’t talking at all, according to the JPost. Whether that’s to maintain some discretion around pre-negotiation arrangements or whether the US is not interested in another round of pointless posturing from Abbas Aragahchi and Mohammed Ghalibaf is not yet clear.
The Iranians still might be inclined to show up, though. The regime wants to wait out the US and Israel by stalling through endless posturing and Kabuki theater without conceding anything. The blockade on Iranian shipping will limit that stalling, but it may not limit it for a while. IRGC chief Ahmad Vahidi thinks he can outlast Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, or perhaps more accurately, outlast the voters in the US and Israel.
The problem with an Islamabad II is the abject failure of Islamabad I. The Iranians didn’t show up to negotiate; they showed up to posture for their own propaganda purposes. It’s not even clear that Araghchi and Ghalibaf have any authority or power to negotiate on behalf of the IRGC. Vahidi reportedly accused both of them of betraying Ali Khamenei for sitting down with the US delegation. Even if Vahidi approved the trip, using his Nepo Babytollah sock puppet, he’s not going to deliver on any agreement that takes highly enriched uranium out of Iran, let alone cut ties with Iran’s terror proxies or limit their missile/drone programs.
So what’s the point of an Islamadad II except for another round of posturing? Vance made clear that the US left its “best” deal on the table when leaving the table last weekend. He told reporters that when Iran wanted to accept the deal, the US would be ready to talk. Let them stew in the blockade until they make that choice.
Addendum: The comic-relief meeting will take place, as a parody of impotence:
French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer are set to co-host a virtual conference from Paris on Friday with other countries that are prepared to join a peaceful mission to “restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz,” according to the Élysée Palace. Downing Street confirmed the meeting and said it would advance work toward a coordinated plan for safeguarding international shipping.
Macron has indicated that France won’t participate in any U.S. blockade of the strategic waterway and Starmer has said the U.K. won’t be involved. “This strictly defensive mission, distinct from the belligerents, will be deployed as soon as the situation allows,” Macron wrote on X on Monday.
Why not just ask Greta Thunberg to send her flotilla into the Strait of Hormuz? She actually has more ability to get there than the UK, and more will to insert herself into a hostile situation than the French. Sacre bleu.
Editor’s Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.
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