VP Vance Departs Pakistan After Failing To Reach Deal With Iran
Talks between the United States and Iran ended early Sunday without a peace agreement after Tehran refused to accept key US demands, including commitments on its nuclear program, US officials said.
US Vice President JD Vance said the 21-hour negotiations concluded without a breakthrough, despite good-faith efforts by Washington.
“We have not reached an agreement, and I think it’s bad news for Iran, much more than for the US,” Vance said
“But the simple fact is that we need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon,” Vance said, adding that the proposal presented was the administration’s “final and best offer.”
The talks marked the third round of direct, face-to-face negotiations between the two sides, taking place days after a fragile two-week ceasefire was announced in the conflict that has entered its seventh week.
The US once again sent out Jared Kushner who is neither a diplomat nor part of the US administration to ‘negotiate’ on behalf of Israel and Trump’s businesses. Jared is married to Trump’s daughter, has experience managing rental units which qualified him to lead the US war negotiations.
Iran has no plans for a new round of talks with the US, Fars news agency reports, citing a source close to the negotiating team.
“The American team was looking for an excuse to leave the negotiating table,” it adds.
The only market showing any notable impact is crypto with BTC retracing some of the post-ceasefire gains…
Iranian media are striking a cautiously optimistic tone on the progress of the talks.
Iran: How can you negotiate with them, when this is the smartest one in their team? pic.twitter.com/KkTg1yipjx
They say there was progress on implementation of the ceasefire in Lebanon, technical negotiations that went beyond generalities and now an exchange of texts that would put any progress in writing.
To be sure, the US side has been much quieter, and sticking points may come into focus once they’re in black and white.
Teams of experts joined the main negotiators after about an hour, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
Those technical discussions in Islamabad focused on the Strait of Hormuz, a potential ceasefire extension and phased sanctions relief. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency says, citing its reporter at the venue.
“The issue of the Strait of Hormuz is one of the points facing serious disagreement”, adding that the US delegation “hindered progress” during the text-exchange stage with “its usual excessive demands”
Talks have reportedly mostly avoided the core issues that the Trump administration said drove it to war, according to a US official and a Pakistani official familiar with the matter.
Those issues include Iran’s support for armed proxies, and the nuclear and missile programs that were at the heart of Trump’s stated reasons for attacking Iran beginning Feb. 28.
“We have goodwill, but we do not have trust,” Ghalibaf told reporters after arriving in Islamabad, according to Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency.
“In the upcoming negotiations, if the American side is prepared for a genuine agreement and to grant the rights of the Iranian nation, they will see readiness for an agreement from us as well.”
Tasnim said that Tehran’s 71-member delegation also included the Islamic Republic’s central bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati.
Also on the agenda will be the fate of Iran’s uranium stockpile and missile production, as well as US sanctions against the Islamic Republic and broader military presence in the Middle East. Many of those issues were the same ones the two sides failed to resolve in February negotiations before the war began.
Iran’s deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi says Tehran has entered negotiations from a position of strength, arguing that the war on Iran had failed to deliver decisive strategic gains for the US.
Trump – as we detailed below – made it clear he sees Iran ‘holding no cards’.
