US Vice President JD Vance departed Islamabad on Sunday after failing to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, following an exhaustive 21 hours of negotiations.
Vance blamed the lack of progress on Tehran’s refusal to accept Washington’s demands, particularly regarding its nuclear ambitions. “The bad news is we haven’t reached an agreement, and that’s worse for Iran than for America,” he told reporters. He emphasized that the US had clearly communicated its red lines, including a binding commitment from Iran not to pursue nuclear weapons or the means to quickly develop them.
Vance noted that he consulted with President Donald Trump at least six times during the talks. Meanwhile, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency attributed the failure to “excessive” US demands, though Tehran initially suggested technical talks would continue.
The Islamabad meeting marked the first direct US-Iranian negotiations in over a decade and the highest-level since the 1979 revolution. The outcome had major implications: a fragile two-week ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital chokepoint for 20% of global oil supplies, which Iran has blocked since the war began. The conflict has already driven up oil prices and caused thousands of casualties.
According to Pakistani mediators, Vance, envoy Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner met Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi for two hours before a break. The Iranian delegation arrived dressed in black, mourning the late supreme leader and others killed in the war, carrying belongings of students allegedly killed in a US airstrike near a military compound—an incident the Pentagon is investigating.
A Pakistani source described mood swings and fluctuating tensions during the first round. Islamabad was placed under a heavy security lockdown for the talks, highlighting Pakistan’s surprising emergence as a diplomatic mediator just a year after being an outcast. As negotiations unfolded, the US military announced it was “setting the conditions” to begin clearing the Strait of Hormuz.
