Up to Iran to push peace talks amid Hormuz Strait blockade

Vice President JD Vance, after returning from unsuccessful negotiations with Iran over the weekend, said Monday that it is up to the Islamic Republic to make the next move on peace talks with the U.S.

“Whether we have further conversations, whether we ultimately get to a deal, I really think the ball is in the Iranian court, because we put a lot on the table,” Vance said in a Fox News interview.

He stressed that if America’s “red lines” on Iran’s nuclear ambitions are met, “then this can be a very, very good deal for both countries.”

The remarks came hours after the U.S. started blocking ships from entering or exiting Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz, in what President Donald Trump says is an attempt to pressure Tehran’s leaders back to the negotiating table.

The blockade was announced shortly after U.S. negotiators departed from peace talks in Islamabad without securing a deal to end the war.

It was also aimed at forcing Iran to reopen the strait, a vital pathway for oil shipping whose de facto closure during the war has since global energy prices soaring.

“We can’t let a country blackmail or extort the world, because that’s what they’re doing,” Trump said of Iran on Monday.

Vance told Fox, “We need to see the Strait of Hormuz fully open. And this is, frankly, one of the things where the Iranians tried to move the goalposts during the negotiation.”

The fragile 14-day ceasefire with Iran, which began last week, was premised in part on Tehran agreeing to reopen the strait, Vance said.

“But we haven’t seen that full reopening. So our expectation is that the Iranians are going to continue to make progress to opening the Strait of Hormuz, and if they don’t, it’s going to fundamentally change the negotiation that we have with them,” he said.

The blockade provides “additional economic pressure” on Iran, he said.

All of America’s “red lines” for a peace deal stem from the position that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon, the vice president said.

Washington and Tehran could not reach final agreements, Vance said, on Trump’s two non-negotiables: removing Iran’s enriched uranium from the country, and implementing verification measures to ensure that they cannot obtain nuclear weapons.

The U.S. negotiating team of Vance and special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner made progress with Iran during the Islamabad talks, the vice president said.

“They moved in our direction, which is why I think we would say that we had some good signs. But they didn’t move far enough,” he said.

“And so what we decided is, you know what, given that we don’t think this current team and this current timeline is going to be able to make a deal, let them go back to Tehran, we’re going to go back to Washington, and that’s where we are today,” he said.

Asked if more talks are in the pipeline, Vance said, “It’s a question that would be best put to the Iranians, because the ball really is in their court.”

“There really is, I think, a grand deal to be had here,” he said, “but it’s up to the Iranians, I think, to take the next step.”

“The president, wants the Iranian people to thrive and succeed. He has had his negotiation team put on the table a serious proposal,” Vance said. The ball is in Iran’s court. Did we make progress? Yes, but we’re going to find out from the Iranians whether we can make that ultimate bit of progress that gets us to a big deal.”