“As negotiations with Iran broke down Tuesday before they had even begun, President Trump asked aides whether the U.S. should resume attacks on the country, according to U.S. officials.
Just hours earlier, White House officials had been optimistic that Vice President JD Vance, set to depart for Islamabad Tuesday, would be able to strike a deal with Iran and get something in writing unlike his trip to Pakistan two weeks prior, a U.S. official said. Air Force Two sat idle most of the day at Joint Base Andrews in suburban Washington awaiting Vance.
Pakistani mediators said Iran's top leaders had told them earlier that their negotiating team would also travel to Islamabad on Tuesday. Then, with the clock ticking toward Trump's cease-fire deadline, Iran reversed course.
In a series of frenzied meetings throughout the day at White House, Trump weighed his options with Vance, top security officials as well as his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, who were also supposed to depart Tuesday for Islamabad for negotiations.
By early afternoon, Vance's trip was paused. By evening, it was delayed indefinitely.
During the meetings, aides told Trump that Iran's government wasn't a unified entity, with hard-line factions in Tehran unwilling to bend to the president's demands. Questions were raised at the White House about whether Iran was really even in a position to negotiate and stick to any commitments.
Even as Trump asked about resuming the bombing campaign, officials said he seemed wary about restarting hostilities and prolonging a conflict that is deeply unpopular with the American public.
Trump and his team split the difference: maintain pressure on Iran indefinitely until the regime makes a concrete offer to the U.S. After that, the president could gauge whether negotiations could proceed or if he would have to order a new wave of strikes on the Islamic Republic.
Trump said in a social-media post that he would maintain the blockade and extend the cease-fire, which was set to expire Wednesday, as long as talks continue. Vance could still leave later in the week, but Trump is privately discussing canceling the trip altogether, a U.S. official said.
Later Tuesday, Trump said in a social-media post that if the U.S. ends its blockade of Iranian ports, "there can never be a deal with Iran."
The game of chicken complicated the effort to negotiate an end to a conflict that has left thousands dead.
Delaying tactics aren't uncommon in negotiations where every detail can be a source of leverage. But mediators said Tehran's last-minute curveball this time reflected its anger at the week-old American blockade of its ports and an effort by the government's hard-liners to extract the highest possible price to end the war.
The U.S. military raised the pressure on Iran Tuesday by boarding a sanctioned crude-oil tanker in the Indian Ocean, part of an effort to crack down on ships in the so-called shadow fleet that help Iran evade sanctions.
Tehran went into the first round of talks earlier in April confident that its grip on the Strait of Hormuz and the ability of its drones and missiles to inflict economic pain on the Gulf and global economy had given it leverage in the talks.
The U.S. blockade, which took effect 24 hours after the first round ended without a deal, has been largely effective.
"I think it levels the scales of pressure between the U.S. and Iran," Michael Singh, a former senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council who is now at the Washington Institute think tank, said of the blockade. "Previously Iran was exporting oil and no one else was, which meant time and pressure were working against Washington."” [1]
The Iranians are having no election soon. Trump has midterms in November that could take away his power through impeachment. Is this the same pressure or what?
1. World News: Iran Holds Back Team From U.S. Talks --- Trump asks aides about resumption of bombing after Vance trip is put on pause. Said, Summer; Norman, Laurence; Ward, Alexander; Andrews, Natalie. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 22 Apr 2026: A8.
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