Trump says he will extend Iran ceasefire until negotiations conclude
By BBC, April 22, 2026The White House has now confirmed Vice President JD Vance’s trip to Pakistan for peace negotiations has been cancelled.
Vance was expected to travel to Islamabad for the second time this month, arriving on Wednesday in hopes of finalising a deal with Iranian officials.
“Any further updates on in-person meetings will be announced by the White House,” an administration official says, according to CBS, the BBC’s US partner.
The cancellation comes after President Trump announced he had agreed to a request to extend the US-Iran ceasefire indefinitely.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has thanked Trump after the US president announced an indefinite extension of the ceasefire with Iran shortly before it expired.
“I sincerely thank President Trump for graciously accepting our request to extend the ceasefire to allow ongoing diplomatic efforts to take their course,” he says in an online statement.
“With the trust and confidence reposed in, Pakistan shall continue its earnest efforts for negotiated settlement of conflict,” the statement adds. “I sincerely hope that both sides will continue to observe the ceasefire and be able to conclude a comprehensive ‘Peace Deal’ during the second round of talks scheduled at Islamabad for a permanent end to the conflict.”
Mahmoud Nabavian, an Iranian member of parliament who was part of the delegation in the first round of talks between Iran and the US in Islamabad, has said on X that “from now on”, negotiating with the US is “purely detrimental and irrational”.
Separately, spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters, Iran’s top military command, has warned that Iran’s forces, in case of an attack against Iran, will “strike pre-determined targets delivering another, even harsher lesson” to the US and Israel.
In both Nabavian’s post and Khatam al-Anbiya’s statement, there was no mention of an extension to the ceasefire, though both were reported by Iranian outlets after Donald Trump’s announcement.
We have yet to see any reaction from Iran’s Foreign Ministry or its officials, or from Iran’s parliament speaker and top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf himself.