The United States and Iran have failed to reach any agreement after marathon negotiations in Pakistan aimed at ending the ongoing conflict, officials from both sides said on Sunday.
The talks, which lasted more than 12 hours, were hosted by Pakistan and involved senior diplomats from Washington and Tehran.
A US State Department spokesperson described the discussions as “frank but unproductive,” adding that significant differences remained on key issues including the Strait of Hormuz and sanctions relief.
“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 on Sunday, 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” at the talks, which began on Saturday, 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 during a ceasefire in the six-week US-Israeli war on Iran.
“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”.
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the leader of Tehran’s delegation in Islamabad, said it raised “forward-looking” initiatives, but the US failed to gain the trust of his delegation in the talks.
“The US has understood Iran’s logic and principles, and it’s time for them to decide whether they can earn our trust or not,” Ghalibaf said in a post on X.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, who mediated the session, expressed disappointment but urged both parties to return to the table soon. “We believe dialogue remains the only path forward. We will continue to facilitate any future talks,” he said.
The failure of the talks leaves the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran in a precarious state, with recent Iranian strikes on Gulf shipping and US retaliatory actions raising fears of further escalation. No date has been set for the next round of negotiations.
