US and Iran fail to reach deal after marathon talks in Pakistan

The United States and Iran have failed to reach a deal after high-stakes talks in the Pakistani capital, with Vice President JD Vance saying Tehran refused to accept Washington’s terms after 21 hours of negotiations in Islamabad.

“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,” Vance, the head of the US delegation, told reporters shortly before he left Islamabad after the highest-level meeting between Washington and Tehran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

He said Iran chose “not to accept our terms”, adding that the US needs to see a “fundamental commitment” from Tehran not to develop nuclear weapons.

“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,” Vance said.

Al Jazeera’s John Hendren, reporting from Washington, DC, said the fact that President Donald Trump sent Vance showed the US was taking these talks seriously.

“The fact that Vance left doesn’t necessarily mean that the talks are over,” he said, adding that the main sticking points seem to be the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran continues to control, and the gaps in the nuclear issue.

“The US has been negotiating with Iran over time; those talks can continue remotely, and leaving those talks may simply be a hard stance,” the Al Jazeera correspondent added.

Hendren said the US is demanding not just that Iran pledge that it will not develop nuclear weapons, but also that it will not even try to access those tools, adding that such gaps made the talks in the mid-2010s take years to negotiate.

Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Sunday that no one had expected the talks with the US to reach an agreement in a single session.

“Naturally, from the beginning, we should not have expected to reach an agreement in a single session. No one had such an expectation,” ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said, according to state broadcaster IRIB.

He said Tehran was “confident that contacts between us and Pakistan, as well as our other friends in the region, will continue”.

Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said the Iranian side did not share information on the technicalities or other details pertaining to the points of controversy in the talks.

“Previously, the domain of the talks between Washington and Iran was concentrated upon the nuclear dossier and stockpile of highly enriched uranium, and that was a matter of controversy in the previous rounds of negotiations,” he said.

“But this time, we’re dealing with a rather comprehensive approach when it comes to other issues; and obviously, with that comprehensiveness comes other controversial issues,” said the Al Jazeera correspondent, adding that rival sides are looking to address many subjects from the Strait of Hormuz to security assurances.

Call for continued truce

Meanwhile, Pakistan has called on the US and Iran to uphold their commitment to the ceasefire and continue efforts to achieve a durable peace.

“On behalf of Pakistan, I would like to express gratitude to the two sides for appreciating Pakistan’s efforts to achieve a ceasefire and its mediator role. We hope that the two sides continue with a positive spirit to achieve durable peace and prosperity for the entire region and beyond,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said.

Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid, reporting from Islamabad, said, in the framework proposed by Iran before the talks, there was no mention of a complete surrender of nuclear ambitions.

“But what the US is essentially asking Iran now is that they give up their right to any nuclear programme, even for medical purposes,” he said.

“There is a sea of mistrust that they are trying to build bridges over, and statements like this and leaving the negotiations with an ultimatum are not going to help bridge those divides,” he said.

The US and Israel launched a war on Iran on February 28 that expanded to the wider Middle East region, with Tehran carrying out retaliatory attacks on Israel and neighbouring Gulf countries hosting US assets. More than 2,000 people were killed, and military and civilian areas were damaged in the US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

The war began despite several rounds of talks between Washington and Tehran. Oman, the mediator, said the war started despite a deal “within reach”. Experts have said the war violated international laws. A landmark nuclear deal signed between the US and Iran in 2015 was scrapped during Trump’s first term as president.

The war also caused a global energy crisis after Iran put a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which some 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas exports pass.

The US delegation, led by Vance, and the Iranian delegation, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, had discussed how to advance a ceasefire already threatened by deep disagreements and Israel’s continued attacks against the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Israeli strikes have continued across southern Lebanon, with at least six people killed in the Tyre district in the latest attack.