US-Iran talks collapse leaving ceasefire hanging

“We’ve had a number of substantive discussions with the Iranians. That’s the good news,” US Vice President JD Vance told reporters.

“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 of America.”

Washington made “very clear what our red lines are, what things we’re willing to accommodate them on and what things we’re not willing to accommodate them on,” Vance told reporters.

Tehran opted “not to accept our terms”, the vice president said, speaking alongside Steve Witkoff, US special envoy for peace missions, and Jared Kushner, who advises his father-in-law, President Donald Trump.

“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 said. “That is the core goal of the president of the United States, and that’s what we’ve tried to achieve through these negotiations.”

Iran declined to offer a “fundamental commitment” that it would not seek a nuclear programme “for the long term,” the US vice president said. He added that the Trump administration hoped that the Iranian regime would make that commitment.

It came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke about the achievements and necessity of Israel’s military campaigns against Iran in a speech broadcast on Israeli television on Saturday night.

Addressing Israel’s rationale for the Operation Roaring Lion – the latest round of strikes that began in February – he said “intelligence showed that Khamenei had ordered the renewal and even the expansion of both the nuclear programme and the missile programme”.

Israel, he said, had weakened the Iranian regime “to its lowest level, the weakest it has been since its establishment 47 years ago.

"They who sought to destroy us are now fighting for their own survival.”

Speaking about the US negotiations with Iran, Vance described the American position as “quite flexible” and “quite accommodating”. Trump told the negotiators to go to Pakistan “in good faith and make your best effort to get a deal”, he said.

“We did that, and unfortunately, we weren’t able to make any headway,” Vance told reporters.

The US negotiators consulted Trump “a half dozen times, a dozen times over the past 21 hours” about the discussions, according to Vance.

He told reporters that part of the conversation was about the Iranian regime’s demand that its overseas assets, which are frozen due to US sanctions, be unlocked.

“We leave here with a very simple proposal, a method of understanding, that is our final and best offer,” Vance said. “We’ll see if the Iranians accept it.”

The discussions were the highest-level known direct talks between American and Iranian officials since 2013, when then-President Barack Obama called Hassan Rouhani, then newly elected as Iranian president, to talk about the regime’s nuclear programme. 

The talks on Saturday, which Pakistan facilitated, came days into a fragile ceasefire in the conflict between a US-Israeli coalition and Iran.

The Islamic Republic has also attacked several Gulf neighbours and largely closed the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway through which approximately 20 per cent of global oil and gas passes, causing skyrocketing fuel prices.

Vance led the US delegation in Islamabad. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament, led the Iranian side.

Asked whether the failure of the talks to reach an agreement would lead back to war, the US vice president did not answer.

In his speech on Saturday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Why did we go to war? Because Iran was close, very close, to obtaining nuclear weapons and to acquiring the capability to produce missiles, thousands upon thousands of missiles, not a handful a day, that would have fallen on us in the hundreds every single day. Existential threats that we had to remove from above our heads.

“Before Operation Rising Lion, I received precise intelligence in real time, and it told us that Iran had begun to act to turn enriched uranium into nuclear weapons. The moment we received that intelligence, we went into action. We eliminated 12 of their senior nuclear scientists. We struck their nuclear facilities together with our American allies… And we also struck missile stockpiles and hundreds of launchers. All of this removed from us a double, immediate existential threat.

“But after Operation Rising Lion, a few months later, I again received precise intelligence, again in time, and that intelligence showed that Khamenei had ordered the renewal and even the expansion of both the nuclear programme and the missile programme... 

"I could not sit idly by. We went into action. In Operation Lion’s Roar we eliminated another eight nuclear scientists who this time were engaged in weaponisation. That is, building the weapon itself, not only enriched uranium but the weapon. Without this, it is impossible to produce nuclear bombs.

“We destroyed the heavy water reactor at Arak. We destroyed their entire centrifuge array and also a uranium production facility. In other words, we reached a situation in which Iran does not have a single active enrichment facility, and most of its ability to produce missiles has disappeared. They still have missiles, they have a stockpile of missiles, and it is being depleted.

“We had another objective as well: to weaken the Iranian regime to its lowest level, the weakest it has been since its establishment 47 years ago. And I want to tell you what we did.

“We eliminated the Supreme Leader Khamenei, his de facto successor Larijani, the defence minister, the intelligence minister, the chief of staff of the Iranian army, the commander of the Quds Force operations unit, the commanders of the Revolutionary Guards, the commanders of the Basij, the senior leadership, the entire security leadership, the intelligence leadership, the senior air force command, the person responsible for drones, the person responsible for transferring funds to terrorist organisations, the commander of the Iranian navy, the Iranian fleet in the Caspian Sea, dozens of headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards and internal security, dozens of helicopters and transport aircraft, the financial engine of the Revolutionary Guards, that is Iran’s steel industry, and three quarters of Iran’s petrochemical plants. This is what sustains the Revolutionary Guards.

"We struck the largest gas production facility in Iran, fuel depots, ports and railways used to move forces and weapons, and dozens of weapons industry factories. There are many, many more details I will spare you, but we did not spare them. We made a tremendous change.

“There are those who say we have no achievements. These are enormous achievements.”

He then turned to Israel’s war against Hezbollah.

“We are fighting Hezbollah because we are determined, and I am determined, to restore security to the residents of the north. They deserve it, like every citizen of Israel.

“I want to tell you what has happened here. As a result of this power that we demonstrated, Lebanon approached us in the past month, approached us several times to begin direct peace talks. This has not happened in our history. It happened once decades ago, but now they have approached us again. And I made it conditional on two things: we want the disarmament of Hezbollah, and we want a real peace agreement, a peace agreement that will endure for generations.

“And I want to tell you something else. It is not only Lebanon approaching us. Many other countries, both in the Middle East and beyond, are seeking cooperation and alliances with us, because they see our strength.”