American vice-president JD Vance has landed this morning in Porto, on the first leg of a trip to Macedonia, with a view to taking part in talks to broker a ‘peace deal’ with Iran.
According to reports, Air Force Two (as the vice-president’s plane is known) arrived in Porto’s Francisco Sá Carneiro airport in the early evening of yesterday.
The Boeing C-32A flew in from Andrews air base, on the outskirts of Washington D.C.
It is due to take off for Skopje, Macedonia, at around 1pm today.
Vance, who has been very much in the background since the United States administration launched its military attacks on Iran (that have since escalated to the wider Middle East region), is now being tipped as a possible ‘negotiator’ for peace.
According to Jornal das Notícias, the presence of Air Force Two was flagged by planespotters, who say the aircraft is parked in a ‘remote position’ but being regularly patrolled by PSP vehicles, and is “surrounded by various vans”.
As to Vance’s ultimate destination, it may not be Skopje. Macedonia may simply be another ‘stop over’: the international press is suggesting that Pakistan has emerged as a key mediator to end the war, with a summit in Islamabard, to which Vance is expected, scheduled to take place later this week.
This narrative is still ‘speculative’, however: Iranian born journalist Christiane Amanpour has been explaining to LBC (and potentially other news channels) how all this may well be “Trump just playing the markets” as all her sources (and she has many, official and unofficial) stress that Iran is “nowhere near making a deal” – and has a very specific list of requirements should one come onto the table.
The fact also that Air Force Two has been parked for some hours on the tarmac suggests a lack of urgency in Mr Vance’s mission.
source material: Jornal de Notícias/ Guardian/ TRT World
