ISLAMABAD: Speaking at a press conference before departing for the US after a marathon 21- hour round of direct negotiations with a high-level Iranian delegation, US Vice President JD Vance said the talks had stalled because Iran declined to relinquish what he described as efforts to acquire nuclear weapons capability.
Iranian officials, however, accused Washington of making “excessive” demands that had undermined the negotiations.
Vance said the discussions, which lasted around 21 hours, covered a wide range of critical issues but ultimately ended without agreement, an outcome he described as “bad news” for Tehran.
READ MORE: US negotiators leaving without a peace deal with Iran
“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 US,” he said.
He added that the US had made its position clear throughout what he characterised as intense but inconclusive negotiations. “We need to see an affirmative commitment that Iran will not seek a nuclear weapon, and that it will not pursue the tools enabling it to rapidly achieve one,” he said.
“That remains the core goal of President Donald Trump, and it is what we have sought to secure through these negotiations.”
Vance said Washington had outlined its red lines, as well as areas where it was prepared to show flexibility, but that the Iranian delegation had “chosen not to accept our terms”.
“We have made very clear what our red lines are, what things we are willing to accommodate them on and what things we are not willing to accommodate them on,” he said.
At the outset of the briefing, Vance thanked Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir for their hospitality, acknowledging Pakistan’s efforts to bridge differences between Washington and Tehran.
He stressed that any shortcomings in the negotiations were not attributable to Pakistan, which had “done an amazing job” in facilitating dialogue.
Responding to questions, Vance reiterated that Washington’s core demand remained an “affirmative commitment” from Iran that it would neither pursue nuclear weapons nor develop capabilities enabling rapid weaponisation.
He noted that he had been in frequent contact with President Trump during the talks, speaking to him “at least half a dozen times” as discussions progressed.
“That is the core goal of President Trump, and that’s what we’ve tried to achieve through these negotiations,” he said.
To another question, he said that the central issue was whether Iran would make a long term commitment not to develop nuclear weapons.
“Do we see a fundamental commitment of will for the Iranians not to develop a nuclear weapon, not just now, not just two years from now, but for the long term? We haven’t seen that yet. We hope that we will,” he said.
On the scope of the discussions, Vance said the talks extended beyond nuclear issues but failed to yield agreement.
“We talked about all those issues…and we talked about a number of issues beyond that,” he said. “We just could not get to a situation where the Iranians were willing to accept our terms.”
He claimed that the US delegation had shown flexibility during the negotiations.
“I think that we were quite flexible. We were quite accommodating,” he said.
He said the US was leaving Islamabad with what he described as its “final and best offer”, adding that it remained to be seen whether Iran would accept it.
Iranian officials struck a markedly different tone. In a post on X, the foreign ministry in Tehran rejected suggestions that the talks had “collapsed”, arguing instead that expectations of a swift agreement had always been unrealistic.
“No one should have expected an agreement to be reached in a single session,” said ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei. “From the beginning, such an expectation was not reasonable.”
He added that Iran remained open to continued engagement, expressing confidence that diplomatic contacts, including those facilitated by Pakistan and other regional partners, would continue.
The discussions, held in Islamabad, lasted around 21 hours and represented some of the highest level contact between the two countries in decades.
They were facilitated by Pakistani officials, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, as well as Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) and Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir.
Vance was joined by US envoy Steve Witkoff and senior adviser Jared Kushner. They held an initial two hour face-t-face meeting with Iranian representatives, including parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, before further rounds of negotiations continued overnight.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026