"U.S. Vance leads behind-the-scenes push for a ceasefire and resumption of nuclear talks with Iran"

[Financial News] U.S. political news outlet Axios reported on the 6th (local time) that U.S. Vice President JD Vance was quietly leading indirect negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire with Iran and resuming nuclear talks.
According to Axios, Vice President Vance has held discussions over the past two weeks with mediators in the indirect negotiations, including Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir.
Axios said this meant that Vice President Vance had personally stepped in to help the United States extricate itself from the war with Iran, and that the indirect negotiations had been elevated to the highest levels of the U.S. administration.
President’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Trump’s eldest son-in-law and adviser, are also involved in the indirect negotiations.
Sources said Vice President Vance and the Qatari and Pakistani mediators had discussed arranging a technical meeting at the working level between the United States and Iran in the near future, but it has not yet come to fruition. The vice president’s office has declined to comment.
On the 4th (local time), the day after the U.S. midterm elections ended in a historic defeat for the Republican Party, Vice President Vance cited the war with Iran as a key reason voters had punished the party.
Vice President Vance previously led the U.S. delegation in negotiations with Iran in Islamabad and Switzerland. But the existing ceasefire agreement collapsed when Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps resumed attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
President Trump also spoke by phone that day with Qatar’s ruler, Sheikh Tamim Al Thani, discussing ways to narrow differences between the two countries. Axios reported that Trump was willing to see how diplomatic efforts progressed, while the U.S. military remained ready to resume attacks at short notice if ordered.
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