This morning in Islamabad, preparations are still in place for possible talks. Driving through the capital, there are still security checkpoints and “Islamabad Talks” posters lining streets. But there’s also a lot of uncertainty.
The White House has said a US delegation led by JD Vance would travel to Pakistan, but the timing has been unclear.
It was thought he would have already arrived by now and yet it’s understood he spent the night in Washington on Monday.
The reason for this lack of clarity could be because of Iran’s reluctance to publicly commit to attend.
Instead, there’s still anger and fury in their statements.
The latest from Iran’s speaker of parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the man expected to lead Iran’s delegation, is that Iran won’t accept negotiations “under the shadow of threats”. He also accused Donald Trump of “opening a siege and violating the ceasefire”.
He’s referring to events in the Strait of Hormuz, with the US seizing an Iranian flagged cargo ship, and countering Iran’s effective blockade with one of its own on Iranian ports.
But there’s also something else going on inside Iran. Hardliners are putting pressure on figures like Ghalibaf to choose conflict over diplomacy.
That internal power struggle in a country that has seen layers of senior leaders killed over the course of this war is what is playing out behind the scenes.
Much of what we’re hearing publicly could be political bluster, and Iran could certainly be preparing to travel regardless of what officials are saying.
But all this means that just a day before the ceasefire is set to expire, we still don’t know for certain whether these peace talks will actually happen.
