US-Iran peace talks end without agreement, delegations leave Pakistan

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ISLAMABAD – The US and Iran failed to reach an agreement to end their war despite lengthy talks that concluded on April 12 in Pakistani capital Islamabad, jeopardising a fragile ceasefire.

Each side blamed the other for the failure of the 21-hour-long negotiations to end the fighting, which has killed thousands and sent global oil prices soaring since it began over six weeks ago.

“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,” US Vice-President J.D. Vance, the head of the US delegation, told reporters shortly before he left Islamabad.

“So we go back to the United States having not come to an agreement. We’ve made very clear what our red lines are.”

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad ​Bagher Ghalibaf, who led his country’s delegation along with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, blamed the US for not winning Iran’s trust despite his team offering “forward-looking initiatives”.

“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,” Mr Ghalibaf said on X.

Both the US and Iranian delegations have left Islamabad to return home, Pakistani sources told Reuters.

Mr Vance said Iran had chosen not to accept American terms, including not to build 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. That is the core goal of the President of the United States, and that’s what we’ve tried to achieve through these negotiations,” said Mr Vance.

The talks in Islamabad were the first direct US-Iranian meeting in more than a decade and the highest-level discussions since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said “excessive” US demands had hindered reaching an agreement. Other Iranian media outlets said there was agreement on a number of issues, but the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear programme were the main points of difference.

‘Imperative’ to maintain ceasefire

A spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the talks were conducted in an atmosphere of mistrust.

“It is natural that we shouldn’t have expected to reach agreement in just one session,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying by Iranian media.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said it was “imperative” to preserve the two-week ceasefire that was agreed on April 7 as the sides attempt to wind down a war that began on Feb 28 with air strikes by the US and Israel on Iran.

Israeli security Cabinet minister Zeev Elkin told Army Radio that more talks were still an option, but warned: “The Iranians are playing with fire.”

In his brief press conference, Mr Vance did not mention reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point for about 20 per cent of global energy supplies that Tehran has blocked since the war began.

Mr Vance said he had spoken with US President Donald Trump as many as a dozen times during the talks. But even as the negotiations continued, Mr Trump said on April 11 that a deal was not entirely necessary.

“We’re negotiating. Whether we make a deal or not makes no difference to me, because we’ve won,” he told reporters.

The US delegation included special envoy Steve Witkoff and Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Iran’s team included Mr Ghalibaf and Mr Araghchi.

Even as the talks were taking place, US ally Israel continued bombing Tehran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, insisting that that conflict was not part of the Iran-US ceasefire. Iran says the fighting in Lebanon must stop.

The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah rocket launchers overnight into April 12. Black smoke could be seen rising in the southern suburbs of Lebanese capital Beirut.

In Israeli villages near the border, air raid sirens sounded, warning of incoming rocket fire from Lebanon.

Strait of Hormuz

“There were mood swings from the two sides and the temperature went up and down during the meeting,” a Pakistani source said in reference to an early round of talks, which carried on overnight.

Islamabad, a city of more than two million people, was locked down during the talks, with thousands of paramilitary personnel and army troops on the streets.

Before the talks began, a senior Iranian source told Reuters that the US had agreed to release frozen assets in Qatar and other foreign banks. A US official denied agreeing to release the money.

As well as the release of assets abroad, Tehran is demanding control of the Strait of Hormuz, payment of war reparations and a ceasefire across the region, including in Lebanon, according to Iranian state TV and officials.

Tehran also wants to collect transit fees in the strait.

Despite the differences in Islamabad, three supertankers fully laden with oil passed through the Strait of Hormuz on April 11, shipping data showed, in what appeared to be the first vessels to exit the Gulf since the US-Iran ceasefire deal.

Hundreds of tankers are still stuck in the Gulf, waiting to exit during the two-week ceasefire period.

Mr Trump’s stated goals have shifted but, as a minimum, he wants free passage for global shipping through the strait and the crippling of Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme to ensure it cannot produce an atomic bomb.

Tehran has long denied wanting to build a nuclear weapon. REUTERS