Trump Adds New Threat on Eve of Iran Talks

JD Vance is on his way to Pakistan for weekend talks with Iran, and both sides were talking tough ahead of time. Related coverage:

• Iran demands: The speaker of the Iranian parliament said Friday that two conditions must be met before the talks even begin: a ceasefire in Lebanon by Israel and "the release of Iran's blocked assets," reports the New York Times. The latter point in the X post from Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf is apparently a reference to assets frozen under Western sanctions. As of Friday afternoon, the Iranian team had yet to arrive in Islamabad, notes the BBC. (Read the latest on the possibility of separate Lebanon talks.)
• 'No cards:' President Trump didn't sound open to any such demands. "The Iranians don't seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways," he wrote on Truth Social. "The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!"

• Trump threat: In an interview with the New York Post on Friday, Trump said the US is loading its warships "with the best weapons ever made, even at a higher level than we use to do a complete decimation." If talks fall through, "we will be using them, and we will be using them very effectively." With Iranian officials, he added, you "don't know whether or not they tell the truth."
• Vance: The vice president issued a warning of his own before departing the US, reports the Guardian. "If they're gonna try and play us, then they're gonna find that the negotiating team is not that receptive," he told reporters. However, he also said that if the Iranians "negotiate in good faith, we're certainly willing to extend the open hand."
• Modest aim: The talks begin Saturday, and al Jazeera reports that host Pakistan has a relatively modest ambition: Help the two sides find enough common ground to continue talking past the weekend.