Why did US-Iran talks break down? Some random thoughts.

[Ocelot II]

2. A negotiating team consisting of the Vice President, someone who has no official duties

under the Constitution except to step in if the president is incapacitated*, a dim bulb of a real estate developer who doesn't even work for the government, and the president's oily son-in-law whose entire goal is to arrange grifting opportunities for the Trump family, might have been considered by the Iranians to have been unserious at best and insulting at worst. It doesn't help that Vance's whole attitude all the time toward everyone is one of sneering, smug condescension. Don't normal administrations send teams from the State Department, one of whose actual functions is negotiating treaties? Where was Little Marco?

*The president is, of course, incapacitated, but not officially. Yet.