Brett McGurk is a CNN global affairs analyst who served in senior national security positions under Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
After six weeks of war, the United States and Iran are now planning the most senior meeting between the two countries since the Islamic Republic of Iran was founded in 1979. Led by Vice President JD Vance on the US side and Parliament Speaker Mohammed Ghalibaf on the Iranian side, the talks mark a mind-boggling turn of events now two months into this crisis.
The only precedent for cabinet-level engagement between Washington and Tehran was the negotiations in President Barack Obama’s second term, when Secretary of State John Kerry met regularly with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. Those talks lasted well over a year. Before and after each round at their level, teams of experts on both sides spent weeks and months in Switzerland or Vienna hammering out the details of a nuclear pact.
The lead up to these talks has been different. There appears to have been little diplomatic legwork in preparation. The agenda is not entirely clear.
President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire to set the frame for the talks — but since then, the ceasefire has proven fragile at best and Trump’s precondition of a “complete, immediate, and safe” reopening of the Strait of Hormuz has not been met.
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