Donald Trump has set three to five days for Iran to rally behind a counter offer and re-engage in nuclear talks, US officials say, after a second round of talks in Pakistan collapsed and Vice President JD Vance’s trip to Islamabad was cancelled, Axios reported, citing three US officials.
Trump’s ultimatum: Get your house in order
Donald Trump is prepared to give Iran three to five days to resolve its internal power struggle and present a coherent counteroffer — but the truce he extended Tuesday won’t last indefinitely, three U.S. officials told Axios.
“Trump is willing to give another three to five days of ceasefire to allow the Iranians to get their act together,” one US source said on the matter. “It won’t be open.
The stark assessment reflects growing frustration inside the White House with what officials describe as an Iran that is both unable to say yes and unwilling to say no — leaving Washington in the deeply uncomfortable position of negotiating with a government that may not have anyone empowered to make a deal.
Iran is ‘absolutely broken’, US officials warn
At the heart of the impasse is a rift in Iran’s own power structure that, according to American negotiators, has only become fully apparent in recent days. Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei barely communicates, according to officials. The IRGC generals, who have taken effective control of the country, and Iran’s civilian negotiators are openly at odds over strategy and direction for a number of reasons.
“We saw that inside Iran there is an absolute rift between the negotiators and the military — neither side has access to a supreme leader who is unresponsive,” the US official said.
The rift first became apparent to US officials after the initial round of talks in Islamabad, when it emerged that IRGC commander General Ahmad Vahidi and his deputies had quietly rejected much of what Iranian negotiators discussed at the table.
What was going on behind the scenes of the disagreement then came to light last Friday when Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz – only for the IRGC to refuse to implement the decision and launch a public attack on him.
The assassination of Larijani and its destabilizing consequences
U.S. officials believe the current dysfunction is at least partly the result of the March assassination of Ali Larijani, the former secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and one of the few figures in the Islamic Republic who had both the authority and political weight to hold together its volatile decision-making apparatus.
His successor, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, whose role is to coordinate between the IRGC, civilian leadership and the Supreme Leader, has not proven to be effective in that capacity, according to a US official. The result is a vacuum at precisely the moment when Iran most needs coherent leadership.
Air Force Two on the tarmac – and they’re not going anywhere
The fallout from that vacuum has played out in almost cinematic fashion over the past 48 hours — a period that officials have described as extremely frustrating for the White House, and Vice President JD Vance in particular.
Vance packed his bags for Islamabad to lead the second round of peace talks. White House envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were scheduled to fly from Miami to Pakistan to join him.
On Monday night, Iranian mediators appeared to have given Pakistani mediators the green light to resume talks. By Tuesday morning, that signal had disappeared — replaced by a demand that the U.S. lift its naval blockade before any negotiations could begin.
Air Force 2 sat on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews for hours ready to take off until it became clear the trip was not going to happen. Already airborne from Miami, Witkoff and Kushner diverted to Washington instead.
“The extent of the fracture has become apparent in recent days and the question is: is there any point in going to Islamabad like this?” the US official said. “So we decided to give the diplomatic effort a little more time.
Trump’s war council and the choice between strikes and diplomacy
On Tuesday afternoon, Trump convened his national security team: Vance, Witkoff, Kushner, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine and other senior officials.
Some of Trump’s advisers at the meeting were unsure where they would lean — a massive strike on Iran’s energy infrastructure or more time for diplomacy. He chose the latter.
The decision, according to many US officials and Trump aides, reflects a president who believes the US has already achieved what it set out to do militarily and is now focused on exiting. “It certainly looks like Trump no longer wants to use military force and has decided to end the war,” said one US source close to Trump.
The blockade remains Trump’s primary leverage
Extending the truce came at a cost — Trump conceded leverage by stepping back from the brink. But officials say they believe the naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which remains firmly in place, more than makes up for it. Trump has said privately that Iran is “starved for cash” and can no longer meet its obligations to its own military and police.
In a Tuesday evening post, Truth Social made its position clear. “Iran doesn’t want to close the Strait of Hormuz, it wants to open it so it can make $500 million a day,” he wrote. “They just say they want to shut it down because I have it totally BLOCKED (CLOSED!) so they just want to save face.”
He added: “Four days ago people came to me saying, ‘Sir, Iran wants to open the strait immediately’. But if we do that, there will never be a deal with Iran unless we blow up the rest of their country, including their leaders!”
What happens next: All eyes on Khamenei
The immediate focus now shifts to whether Supreme Leader Khamenei will break his silence in the next day or two and give a clear order to Iran’s negotiators to return to the table — a development that U.S. officials, Pakistani mediators and Israeli sources familiar with the talks are watching closely.
If Pakistani mediators fail to secure Iranian participation within Trump’s voluntary window, the military option—strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure—returns to active consideration.
