Why JD Vance joined Pakistan’s last-ditch US-Iran mediation efforts

Standing before reporters at the White House, US President Donald Trump was asked whether a ceasefire with Iran was within reach.

“We have an active, willing participant on the other side,” he said on Monday, adding that the proposal on the table was “a significant step” before quickly qualifying that “it’s not good enough.”
Pressed on who was leading Washington’s diplomatic push, Trump confirmed what had been unfolding through backchannels for days.

“They’re doing it along with Marco, JD. We have a number of people doing it,” he said, listing Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio among the administration’s lead negotiators for the first time.

In an administration that has struggled to project a coherent diplomatic strategy for a war it launched more than five weeks ago, Vance has largely kept a studied distance from Operation Epic Fury.

But Trump’s statement was a public corroboration of how Vance has quietly emerged as a central actor in last-ditch efforts facilitated by Pakistan to pull the US and Iran back from the brink of what could be the most devastating escalation of the war so far.

The US president threatened over the weekend to bomb Iran’s power and energy facilities if Tehran did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas supplies pass in peacetime, by early on Wednesday Iran time. On Monday, he launched a profanity-laced tirade against Iran on his Truth Social platform.

And on Tuesday, about 12 hours before his self-imposed deadline for Iran, Trump escalated his apocalyptic rhetoric further.