Vance warns Iran not to 'play' the US as he departs for negotiations aimed at ending the war

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President JD Vance on Friday warned Iran not to “play” the U.S. as he headed overseas for negotiations aimed at ending the war.

President Donald Trump has tasked the member of his inner circle who has seemed to be the most reluctant defender of the 6-week-old conflict with Iran to now find a resolution and stave off the U.S. president's astonishing threat to wipe out its “whole civilization.”

Vance, who has long been skeptical of foreign military interventions and outspoken about the prospect of sending troops into open-ended conflicts, set off Friday to lead mediated talks with Iran in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

“If the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we’re certainly willing to extend the open hand,” Vance told reporters before boarding Air Force Two to make his way to the talks in Pakistan. But he added, “If they’re gonna try and play us, then they’re gonna find that the negotiating team is not that receptive.”

Vance's trip comes as a tenuous, temporary ceasefire appears to be on the precipice of collapsing. The chasm between Iran’s public demands and those from the U.S. and its partner Israel seems irreconcilable. And in the U.S., where Vance might ask voters in two years’ time to make him the next president, there is growing political and economic pressure to wrap it up.

As Vance made his way to the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said in a social media post that a ceasefire in Lebanon, where Israel is targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, and the release of blocked Iranian assets “must be fulfilled before negotiations begin.” He did not elaborate further.

Qalibaf and other senior Iranian officials arrived in Islamabad, Pakistan, later on Friday ahead of Vance. The Iranian delegation for the talks, which is slated to begin Saturday, also includes Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Ali Akbar Ahmadian, secretary of the Supreme National Defense Council, Central Bank Governor Abdolnasser Hemmati, and several lawmakers. It was received at the airport by Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and other senior Pakistani government officials.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in a televised address to his nation on Friday, described the talks as a “make-or-break moment” for the two sides.

Vance is joined by Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who took part in three rounds of indirect talks with Iranian negotiators aimed at settling U.S. concerns about Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic weapons programs and its support for armed proxy groups in the Middle East before Trump and Israel launched the war against Iran on Feb. 28.

The White House has provided scant detail about the format of the talks — whether they will be direct or indirect — and has not provided specific expectations for the meeting.

But the arrival of Vance for negotiations marks a rare moment of high-level U.S. government engagement with the Iranian government. Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the most direct contact had been when President Barack Obama, a Democrat, in September 2013 called newly elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to discuss Iran’s nuclear program.

Almost immediately after the White House and Iran announced a temporary ceasefire Tuesday evening, the sides found themselves at odds over the terms of the truce.

Iran insisted that an end to the Israeli war in Lebanon was part of the ceasefire. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump said the truce did not cover Lebanon, and the Israeli operations there continued.

The U.S., meanwhile, demanded that Iran make good on reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The Islamic Republic had closed the critical shipping waterway in response to Israel’s intensifying attacks against the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.

“The Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short-term extortion of the World by using International Waterways,” Trump posted on social media on Friday. “The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!”

Iran’s effective shuttering of the waterway has had a major impact on the U.S. and global economies. In the United States, consumer prices rose 3.3% in March from a year earlier, the Labor Department reported Friday. The largest monthly jump in gas prices in six decades spurred the sharp spike in inflation.

Still, Trump expressed confidence in an exchange with reporters on Friday evening about the U.S. position going into the talks. He predicted that the strait will soon be reopened “with or without” Tehran's cooperation.

It’s the highest-stakes moment thus far for Vance, who spent much of last year as more of a background player in the Trump White House, especially as others like Elon Musk and Secretary of State Marco Rubio took turns as ever-present advisers for the president.

“I wished him luck. He’s got a big thing,” Trump said of his parting message to Vance before he began his journey to Islamabad.

Vance’s portfolio is fattening fast, first with a mission to root out fraud in government programs at home and now to help solve a U.S. war in the Middle East, where complicated doesn’t even begin to describe things.

Vance, who served in the Iraq War while in the Marines and spent two years as a U.S. senator for Ohio and a little more than one as vice president, has little diplomatic experience.

On Wednesday, he dismissed speculation that the Iranians requested that he join the talks, telling reporters: “I don’t know that. I would be surprised if that was true. But, you know, I wanted to be involved because I thought I could make a difference.”

Jonathan Schanzer, a former Treasury Department official who is now executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington think tank, said Vance, with little experience on Iran policy, is an interesting choice to lead the delegation.

Trump has noted his vice president was “less enthusiastic” than other top senior officials in the Republican administration, making Vance an intriguing interlocutor for the Iranian side, Schanzer said.

“I think they probably prefer him knowing that his perspective on foreign intervention is one of skepticism,” Schanzer said of the Iranians. “I do think that he’s going to need some help. I don’t think he’s ever been engaged in negotiations with this kind of weight, this kind of seriousness. This is as serious as it gets.”

The White House has pushed back against the characterization that Iran wanted Vance in the talks, casting it as an effort to hurt negotiations.

Vance and Rubio are seen as the Republican Party’s strongest potential 2028 presidential contenders, though neither has given a clear answer about whether he intends to run.

As vice president, Vance inherently would carry any baggage of the administration if he eventually runs for president, said Joel Goldstein, a professor of law at Saint Louis University, who is an expert on the history of the vice presidency. Stepping in to lead negotiations even further ties him to the conflict.

“The fact that he’s involved in the negotiations in a very visible way, that means that, if things go south, that people will be pointing fingers at him,” Goldstein said.

He added, “If things go well, then it will be something that he could point to.”

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AP writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Pakistan, contributed reporting.

Vice President JD Vance boards Air Force Two, Friday, April 10, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., for expected departure to Pakistan, for talks on Iran. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, pool)

Vice President JD Vance speaks to the press before boarding Air Force Two, Friday, April 10, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., for expected departure to Pakistan, for talks on Iran. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, pool)

Vice President JD Vance walks to speak with the Press before boarding Air Force Two, Friday, April 10, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., for expected departure to Pakistan, for talks on Iran. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, pool)

Vice President JD Vance aboard, walking far left, arrives, Friday, April 10, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., where Vance will board Air Force Two, seal right, and depart to Pakistan, for talks on Iran. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, pool)

Vice President JD Vance walks off Marine Two to walk and board Air Force Two, Friday, April 10, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., for expected departure to Pakistan, for talks on Iran. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, pool)

Vice President JD Vance walks to board Air Force Two, Friday, April 10, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., for expected departure to Pakistan, for talks on Iran. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, pool)

Vice President JD Vance speaks to the press before boarding Air Force Two, Friday, April 10, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., for expected departure to Pakistan, for talks on Iran. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, pool)

Vice President JD Vance, left, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio attend a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House, March 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, file)

Vice President JD Vance speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force Two to return to Washington, at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport in Budapest, Hungary, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool via AP)

Vice President JD Vance pauses after speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force Two to return to Washington, at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport in Budapest, Hungary, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool via AP)

Vice President JD Vance waves as he boards Air Force Two to depart for Budapest, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Monday, April 6, 2026. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool via AP)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota prosecutor on Monday announced charges against an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in the nonfatal shooting of a Venezuelan man during the Trump administration’s crackdown in Minnesota.

The officer, Christian Castro, is charged with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said at a news conference. A warrant was issued for his arrest.

“Mr. Castro is an ICE agent, but his federal badge does not make him immune from state charges for his criminal conduct in Minnesota,” Moriarty said, adding that Sosa-Celis never posed a threat and that her office received no cooperation from the federal government. “There is no such thing as absolute immunity for federal officers who commit crimes in this state or any other.”

Castro shot Sosa-Celis in the thigh after he and another officer chased a different man to the apartment duplex where the man and Sosa-Celis lived, Moriarty said, noting that both Sosa-Celis and the other man were legally in the U.S.

Federal authorities initially accused Sosa-Celis and Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna of beating an officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel during the incident. But a federal judge later dismissed the charges and federal officials opened an investigation into whether two immigration officers lied about what happened.

Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department officials didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment. DHS previously said that lying under oath is a “serious federal offense” and that making false statements could result in an officer being fired or prosecuted.

The administration sent thousands of officers to the Minneapolis and St. Paul area as part of President Donald Trump’s national deportation campaign. DHS, which oversees ICE, called Operation Metro Surge its largest immigration enforcement operation ever and deemed it a success.

But tensions mounted during the weekslong campaign and the shooting deaths of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers provoked mass unrest and questions about officers’ conduct.

Minnesota leaders and the Trump administration have clashed over which has the authority to investigate and prosecute officers for conduct while on duty. The Trump administration has suggested that Minnesota officials don’t have jurisdiction.

State officials, though, have said they don’t trust the federal government to investigate itself or hold officers accountable.

“There’s no modern precedent for what happened to the people here in Minnesota,” Moriarty said Monday. “So it requires a lot of us to dig in and look at ways to hold people accountable that we probably never thought we would be looking at in our careers.”

Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, has been conducting investigations into multiple incidents during the crackdown. Moriarty's office last month charged Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. with two counts of second-degree assault for allegedly pointing his gun at people in a car on a highway, but he is still at large. She said Monday that her office has made “substantial progress” in apprehending him.

The county continues to investigate Good's and Pretti’s killings and sued the administration in March over access to evidence in the two cases and the one involving Sosa-Celis. Although Moriarty hasn't charged anyone in either killing, she has said she's confident her office's investigations will bring transparency, even if not criminal prosecution.

Fingerhut reported from Des Moines, Iowa.

FILE - Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty explains her progressive approach to prosecutions, June 19, 2024, at her office in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave, File)