U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrives at the Nur Khan airbase in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on April 11, 2026. (Xinhua)Twenty-one hours was not enough to end 47 years of hostility between Iran and the US. The historic high-level talks in Islamabad, during a pause in weeks of grievous war, were always unlikely to end any other way. What happens to the contested two-week ceasefire which pulled the world back from US President Donald Trump's alarming threat to destroy a "whole civilisation" in Iran? And he made it clear that was "bad news for Iran much more than the United States of America".

Source: The Star April 12, 2026 20:18 UTC