12.4.2025
U.S. and Iranian negotiations to end their months-long war did not yield results as both parties left Islamabad, Pakistan on Sunday, putting an agreed two weeks ceasefire in jeopardy.
According to US Vice President JD Vance, Iran refused to back down from developing nuclear weapons.
“The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement, and I think that’s bad news for Iran much more than it’s bad news for the United States of America,” Vice President JD Vance, the head of the U.S. delegation, told reporters shortly before he left Islamabad.
“So we go back to the United States having not come to an agreement. We’ve made very clear what our red lines are.
“We need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon. That is the core goal of the president of the United States, and that’s what we’ve tried to achieve through these negotiations.”
Each side blamed the other for the failure of the 21-hour negotiations to end fighting that has killed thousands and sent global oil prices soaring since it began over six weeks ago.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said that “excessive” U.S. demands had hindered reaching an agreement. Other Iranian media said there was agreement on a number of issues but that the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear program
me were the main points of difference.
A spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry said the talks were conducted in an atmosphere of mistrust. “It is natural that we shouldn’t have expected to reach agreement in just one session,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying by Iranian media.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said it was “imperative” to maintain the two-week ceasefire that was agreed on Tuesday as the two sides attempted to wind down a war that began on February 28 with air strikes by the U.S. and Israel on Iran. With Reuters reports