US Vice President J.D. Vance said negotiations ended early Sunday between the United States and Iran without a peace deal after the Iranians refused to accept American terms to not develop a nuclear weapon.
The third round of historic, face-to-face talks concluded days after a fragile, two-week ceasefire was announced as the war that has killed thousands of people and shaken global markets entered its seventh week.
The latest bargaining lasted 21 hours, Vance said, with the vice president in constant communication with US President Donald Trump and others in the administration.
“But the simple fact is that 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 told reporters. “That is the core goal of the president of the United States. And that’s what we’ve tried to achieve through these negotiations.”
The vice president said he spoke with Trump “a half dozen times, a dozen times, over the past 21 hours” and also spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Adm. Brad Cooper, head of the United States Central Command.
“We were constantly in communication with the team because we were negotiating in good faith,” Vance said, speaking at a podium in front of a pair of American flags with special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to his side.
“And we leave here, and we leave here with a very simple proposal, a method of understanding that is our final and best offer. We’ll see if the Iranians accept it.”
Trump had said he would suspend attacks against Iran for two weeks. Vance’s comments did not indicate what will happen after that time period expires or if the ceasefire will remain in place.
Two Pakistani officials said discussions between the heads of the delegations will resume after a break. Some technical personnel from both teams are still meeting, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the press.
US says its destroyers moved through the Strait of Hormuz
Meanwhile, the US military said two destroyers transited the Iran-gripped Strait of Hormuz ahead of mine-clearing work, a first since the war began. Iran’s state media, however, said the joint military command denied that.
“We’re sweeping the strait. Whether we make a deal or not makes no difference to me,” Trump told journalists as talks continued and the time approached 2 a.m. in Islamabad. He called negotiations “very deep.” Iranian state TV noted what it called “serious” differences.
The US delegation led by Vance and the Iranian one led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf discussed with Pakistan how to advance the ceasefire already threatened by deep disagreements and Israel's continued attacks against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, whose health ministry said the death toll has surpassed 2,000.
Since the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, the most direct UScontact had been in 2013 when President Barack Obama called newly elected President Hassan Rouhani to discuss Iran’s nuclear program.
Obama's secretary of state, John Kerry, and counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif later met during negotiations toward the 2015 Iran nuclear deal — a process that lasted well over a year.
Now the far broader talks featured Vance, a reluctant defender of the war who has little diplomatic experience and warned Iran not to “try and play us,” and Qalibaf, a former commander with Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard who has issued some of Iran's most fiery statements since fighting began.
