Photo: White House (archive photo)
Vice President JD Vance said Monday that the United States had made progress in talks with Iran but had set no deadline for resuming strikes, adding a cautious update to President Donald Trump’s statement that he was in no rush to restart fighting.
“We’ve made some progress, we’ll see if we can make more,” Vance said, according to a Reuters brief carried by Ynet. He said no deadline had been set for resuming strikes on Iran.
Breaking The News reported that Vance said Trump retained military and nonmilitary options if diplomacy failed. The comments did not announce an agreement, establish peace or rule out renewed strikes.
Trump says he is in no rush
President Donald Trump told Axios in a phone interview Monday that he was “in no rush” to decide whether to restart fighting in Iran, as Qatari mediators circulated a draft sequence of steps aimed at restoring direct U.S.-Iran negotiations.
“One way or the other, we will do something, but there is no rush,” Trump said, according to Axios’s account of the interview. His comments leave diplomacy and renewed military action open rather than announcing a decision to resume combat.
Qatari mediators have written a draft agreement setting out a three-day sequence of confidence-building measures, regional sources told Axios. A diplomat familiar with the effort said the mediators were waiting for feedback from Washington and Tehran. The draft is not a signed deal, and the report does not establish that either government has accepted it.
Three competing approaches
Axios reported that Trump is weighing three courses urged by different camps. Vice President JD Vance and White House envoy Steve Witkoff favour moving toward an agreement, arguing that another war might not improve the situation. Most Gulf countries support that approach and have conveyed it to Trump, sources told the outlet.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth favour resuming combat, Axios reported. They argue Iran cannot be trusted to reach or honour a deal and that the military campaign should be completed.
A third camp, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, favours keeping economic pressure in place without an immediate return to war or a deal, according to Axios’s sources. The outlet reported that Ratcliffe had argued prolonged pressure could force concessions or create internal instability. The CIA declined to comment.
Those descriptions are Axios’s account of private advice, not public announcements by all the officials named.
Talks remain conditional
Trump told Axios the U.S. was talking to Iran and that the exchanges were “going fine,” while accusing Tehran of trying to draw the process out. His claims about the damage to Iran’s economy were his assessment, not independently verified economic findings in the report.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Monday that diplomatic exchanges had become intensive and credited Qatar and Pakistan as mediators, according to Axios. He said negotiations would resume if Washington accepted Tehran’s conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, while warning Iran would respond to renewed military operations.
JBizNews’s earlier coverage of Araghchi’s comments described indirect contacts continuing without a breakthrough. The newly reported Qatari three-day draft is a mediation proposal, distinct from Iran’s earlier outline and not evidence of an agreed timetable.
The stakes extend beyond diplomacy. Earlier JBizNews reporting tracked Monday’s oil decline as markets reacted to the prospects for talks. Trump’s latest interview did not announce a settlement or resolve the risk of renewed fighting.
JBizNews Desk | Washington
© JBizNews.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution is strictly prohibited.
