Vance to return to the U.S. without a deal with Iran to end the war

Vice President JD Vance said early ⁠on Sunday in ‌Pakistan that ​U.S. officials ⁠are leaving ‌peace talks after the Iranian delegation refused to agree not to develop a nuclear weapon.

“We have been at it now for 21 hours, and we’ve had a number of substantive discussions with the Iranians. That’s the good news,” he said in a press conference following the talks. “The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement.”

The key sticking point, Vance said, was on the issue of Iran’s unwillingness to give up its pursuit of 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,” he said, noting it is the “core goal” that President Donald Trump hoped to achieve with the negotiations. “They have chosen not to accept our terms.”

The vice president said he spoke with Trump “a half dozen times, a dozen times, over the past 21 hours,” as well as with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Adm. Brad Cooper, head of the U.S. Central Command.

“We were constantly in communication with the team because we were negotiating in good faith,” Vance said, speaking at a podium alongside special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

“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,” he said. A short time later, the vice president waved goodbye from the top of the stairs as he boarded Air Force Two in Islamabad.

The Iranian delegation, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, discussed with their U.S. and Pakistani counterparts 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.

Qalibaf said Iranian negotiators did not trust the U.S. side “due to the experiences of the two previous wars.”

“My colleagues on the Iranian delegation … raised forward-looking initiatives, but the opposing side ultimately failed to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation in this round of negotiations,” said in a post on X. “America has understood our logic and principles, and now it’s time for it to decide whether it can earn our trust or not?”

Various Iranian state media reports cited stark differences in negotiations for the breakdown in the talks, including the removal of nuclear materials from the country and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Tasnim news agency said that “excessive” U.S. demands had hindered efforts to reach an agreement.

The Iranian government said in a post on X that the talks will “continue for another round after a pause on Sunday.”

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said his country will try to facilitate a new dialogue between Iran and the U.S. in the coming days.

“It is imperative that the parties continue to uphold their commitment to ceasefire,” Dar said.

The historic talks ended days after the fragile, two-week ceasefire was announced. Vance’s comments did not indicate what would happen after that period expired or whether the ceasefire would remain in place.

The ​Iranian delegation arrived dressed in black in mourning for the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and others killed in the war. They carried shoes and bags of some students killed during the U.S. bombing of a school next to a military compound, the Iranian government said. The Pentagon has said the strike is under investigation.

“There were mood swings from the two sides and the temperature went up and down during the meeting,” ‌one Pakistani source told Reuters in reference to the first round of talks.

For the U.S.-Iran ‌talks, Islamabad, a city of more than 2 million people, was locked down with thousands of paramilitary personnel and army troops on the streets.

The peace talks took place as two American warships transited through the Strait of Hormuz for the first time since the start of the conflict. The U.S. Central Command said the warships were taking part in a mission to clear the waterway of sea mines put in place by Iran.

The ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran that began Tuesday has come under strain as Iran continues to block most shipping traffic through the strait, the world’s most critical chokepoint for oil and gas supplies.

U.S. Central Command said that forces began setting conditions for clearing mines in the strait, as two U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers conducted operations. The USS Frank E. Peterson and the USS Michael Murphy transited the strait and operated in the Arabian Gulf as part of a broader mission to clear sea mines previously laid by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a post on X.

“Today, we began the process of establishing a new passage and we will share this safe pathway with the maritime industry soon to encourage the free flow of commerce,” Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of CENTCOM, said in a statement.

“We’re sweeping the strait. Whether we make a deal or not makes no difference to me,” U.S. President Donald Trump told journalists as high-stakes talks continued into the night and the time approached 2 a.m. in Pakistan.

Iran’s state media, however, earlier said Iran forced a U.S. military ship that was attempting to cross the strait to turn around. MS Now later reported that commercial maritime traffic systems showing the USS Michael Murphy crossing the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf weren’t reliable.

Late Saturday, Iran’s Islamic ⁠Revolutionary Guard Corps ​warned ​that ​any attempt by ⁠military ‌vessels to ⁠transit the Strait of Hormuz would ‌be met with “a ​strong response.” Only non-military ⁠vessels would ‌be ‌allowed to pass ⁠under specific regulations, the ⁠IRGC ⁠said in a statement ​carried ‌by Iranian media.

Separately, a senior Iranian source told Reuters the U.S. had agreed to release frozen assets held in ⁠Qatar and other foreign banks, but a U.S. official immediately denied the report.

Three supertankers passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, shipping data showed, marking what appeared to be the ​first vessels ​to exit the ​Gulf since the U.S.-Iran ceasefire deal.

Tehran’s blockade of ⁠the ‌strait, a chokepoint for about ⁠20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, since the start of the Iran war at the end of ‌February, has disrupted global energy supplies and sent oil prices soaring.

The Liberia-flagged Very ​Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) Serifos and China-flagged VLCCs Cospearl Lake and He Rong Hai, entered and exited the “Hormuz Passage trial anchorage” that ⁠bypasses Iran’s Larak Island on Saturday, LSEG data showed.

Each vessel ‌is capable of carrying 2 ‌million barrels of oil.

Serifos, carrying crude loaded from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in early ⁠March, is expected to arrive at Malaysia’s Malacca ⁠port on April 21, data from ⁠LSEG and analytics firm Kpler showed.

Cospearl Lake is laden with Iraqi oil and He ​Rong Hai is carrying ‌Saudi crude, the same data showed.

Both VLCCs are chartered by Unipec, the trading arm of Chinese energy giant Sinopec, according to the data.

Trump has expressed frustration with Iran continuing to block most shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

In an announcement Tuesday evening, Trump said that the U.S. would agree to a two-week suspension of hostilities subject to Iran agreeing to a complete and immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

But since then, vessel traffic through the strait remains nearly as tightly throttled as it has been since the war began on Feb. 28.

In a Truth Social post on Thursday evening, Trump fumed, “There are reports that Iran is charging fees to tankers going through the Hormuz Strait — They better not be and, if they are, they better stop now!”

Iran “is doing a very poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz,” the president wrote in a follow-up post. “That is not the agreement we have!”

Negotiations between Israel and Lebanon are expected to begin Tuesday in Washington, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s office said Friday, after Israel’s surprise announcement authorizing talks despite the countries’ lack of official relations.

But thousands in Lebanon protested the planned negotiations, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said he had postponed a planned trip to Washington “in light of the current internal circumstances.” It was not immediately clear what that meant for the talks.

Israel wants the Lebanese government to assume responsibility for disarming Hezbollah, much like was envisaged in a November 2024 ceasefire. But it is unclear whether Lebanon’s army can confiscate weapons from the militant group, which has survived efforts to curb its strength for decades.

Israel’s insistence that the ceasefire in Iran does not include a pause in its fighting with Hezbollah has threatened to sink the deal. The militant group joined the war in support of Iran in the opening days. Israel followed up with airstrikes and a ground invasion.

The day the Iran ceasefire deal was announced, Israel pounded Beirut with airstrikes, killing more than 300 people in the deadliest day in Lebanon since the war began, according to the country’s Health Ministry.

Qatar’s Ministry of Transport announced the full resumption of maritime navigation activities effective Sunday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time, extending the decision to “all categories of marine vessels and transport modes.”

The ministry urged operators in a statement to comply with safety protocols.

It was not immediately clear whether the decision meant that Qatari vessels would be allowed to transit the Strait of Hormuz, which remained effectively closed.

In his strongest words yet, Pope Leo XIV denounced the “delusion of omnipotence” that is fueling the U.S.-Israel war in Iran and demanded that political leaders stop and negotiate peace.

Leo presided over an evening prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica on the same day the United States and Iran began face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan and as a fragile ceasefire held.

History’s first U.S.-born pope didn’t mention the U.S. or Trump in his prayer, which was planned before the talks were announced. But Leo’s tone and message appeared directed at Trump and U.S. officials, who have boasted of U.S. military superiority and justified the war in religious terms.

“Enough of the idolatry of self and money!” Leo said. “Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!”

In the basilica pews was the archbishop of Tehran, Belgian Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu. The U.S. was represented in the diplomatic corps by its deputy chief of mission, Laura Hochla, the U.S. Embassy said.

— Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report