Saturday, April the 11th, I'm Ali Valshi.

Vice President J.D. Vance is in Islamabad, Pakistan, for peace talks with negotiators from Iran.

He's joined by the dynamic negotiating duo of Steve Whitkoff and Jared Kushner.

A senior U.S. official tells MS now that the U.S.,

Pakistan, and Iran are having a trilateral face-to-face meeting right now, which is different from

those meetings where there are different rooms and the mediators going between them. We've arrived,

by the way, at these talks at the end of a dark and chaotic week, which began with Trump

vowing to increase strikes on Iran until the Strait of Hormuz was opened.

Trump's threats took an apocalyptic turn on Tuesday morning when he warned that, quote,

a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to

happen, but it probably will, end quote. All right, hours before that deadline,

8 p.m. Eastern, Trump announced that a two-week ceasefire had been agreed to so that the U.S. and Iran

could negotiate a deal. The two nations are approaching these talks from vastly different

perspectives. A 10-point plan released by the Iranians included many demands that the U.S.

will not exceed to, like an

acceptance of Iran's right to nuclear enrichment, the lifting of sanctions against Iran, and the

withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from all bases in the region. There are over 50,000 American

troops in the region right now, and Iran is asking for control over the Strait of Hormuz,

something it did not have before the war began. But even outside the actual tenets of any potential

agreement, the ceasefire under which Vanson, also Whitkoff and Kushner, are negotiating with the

Iranians right now, is very fragile. It's a moment away from cracking. Iran's largest issue

since the ceasefire was announced has been America's partner in this war, Israel. While the U.S.

...