The US and Iran failed to reach an agreement after holding marathon talks to end their more than five-week war, raising uncertainty over the durability of a fragile ceasefire.
US vice-president JD Vance, who led the American delegation at the highest-level negotiations between the foes in almost half a century, said Iran was unwilling to commit to never seeking a nuclear weapon.
“We just could not get to a situation where the Iranians were willing to accept our terms,” Vance said as the talks in Islamabad ended.
Iran described the talks as being “full of mistrust and suspicion”, with foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei adding that there were “new complications” at the negotiations, including over the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Neither side mentioned the prospect of any future negotiations.
The 21-hour talks in Islamabad, the first direct negotiations between the US and Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, were intended to build on the two-week truce the warring parties agreed on Tuesday.
Pakistan’s foreign minister Ishaq Dar urged the US and Iran to “uphold their commitment” to the ceasefire. He mediated what he described as several rounds of “intense” talks alongside military chief Asim Munir, Pakistan’s most powerful figure.
Iran’s delegation was led by Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, one of the Islamic republic’s top wartime leaders, and included foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, a veteran nuclear negotiator, as well as defence and finance officials.
Given the deep distrust between the foes and huge gaps in their demands and expectations, diplomats cautioned against the chance of the delegations reaching a deal in the first round of talks.
Key contested issues include the US demand that Iran give up its capacity to enrich uranium, which the Islamic republic vehemently rejects, and the Trump administration’s push to force Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran wants sanctions relief, its assets held overseas unfrozen and assurances that the US will not launch a new war in the future. People briefed on the matter said a “stalemate” developed early on in talks over control of the strait, as Tehran refused any methods for joint control of the waterway.
After the talks ended, an Iranian official was quoted in Iran’s media as saying the situation in the strait would remain “unchanged” unless the US agrees to what Iran considers to be a “reasonable” deal.
“The US has so far made errors in its negotiating calculations, similar to its mis-steps in military assessments,” said the official, quoted by the Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. “Iran is not in a hurry.”
Iran’s ability to all but close the strait since the US and Israel launched the war has become its main point of leverage because it has triggered a global energy crisis. Tehran has insisted it will charge fees for shipping using the waterway, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas normally passes.
A diplomat briefed on the negotiations said more negotiations were expected, but nothing had been scheduled.
“There were some positives, both sides came with openness and a willingness to reach a deal,” they said. “There was progress, but issues remain.”
The diplomat added that the US and Iran went into the talks with “mistrust” and “confusion” after both sides had different interpretations of what was agreed when the ceasefire was reached.
Trump made the Strait of Hormuz’s reopening a condition of the ceasefire. But Iran halted the transit of tankers through the chokepoint after Israel escalated its offensive against Hizbollah. Iran and Pakistan insisted that Lebanon was included in the ceasefire, but the US said it was not.
Vance said the US delegation was leaving Pakistan “with a very simple proposal, a method of understanding that is our final and best offer”.
The vice-president, who was accompanied in Islamabad by US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, said little about the substance of the talks.
The length of the talks and the seniority of the delegations underscored the high stakes of the negotiations.
Witkoff and Kushner held indirect talks over Iran’s nuclear programme before the US and Israel launched their war against the Islamic republic on February 28, deepening Iran’s distrust.
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Thousands of US and Israeli strikes pummelled the Islamic republic, killing senior leaders and commanders, degrading its military capacity and hitting at the heart of its industrial base. But the republic entered the talks believing it had the upper hand in the conflict and a stronger negotiating position after its closure of the strait and attacks on energy facilities in the Gulf threatened to cause a global economic crisis.
On Saturday, the US military said two American warships — US Navy guided-missile destroyers — transited through the strait for the first time since the start of the war with Iran.
The US’s Central Command said it had launched what it described as a mission to free the waterway of mines set by Iran. It added that “additional US forces, including underwater drones, would join the clearance effort in the coming days”.
But Iran denied that any American warships had entered the strait.
Source:
www.ft.com
