A day of talks in Pakistan ended without a resolution, and the path to peace now looks less clear than it did when negotiators first arrived.
Negotiators from Washington and Tehran left talks in Pakistan on Sunday with little to show for it, and a return to fighting between the two sides is looming. Vice President JD Vance and Iranian officials both said significant differences remain in the quest for a deal that could bring a more permanent end to the war, though the fragile two-week ceasefire remains in place.
“We were negotiating in good faith,” Vance said at a press conference. “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.” With just eight days left in the current ceasefire, that failure to find a more permanent agreement raises the prospect of renewed war. The conflict has already seen President Donald Trump threaten to wipe out an entire civilization, with the death toll already in the thousands and the impacts rippling through the global economy. Somewhere between the formal language and the security briefings, the whole thing still feels fragile—like the air before a storm, except you can’t quite tell which way the wind will go.
Iran’s parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led the Iranian delegation in Pakistan, said Sunday that the U.S. failed to gain Iran’s trust during the negotiations in Islamabad. In a post on X, Ghalibaf said his colleagues presented “forward-moving initiatives” but the U.S. was unable “to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation,” citing a history of failed talks and agreements. Iranian state media said “excessive demands” sank the possibility of a deal.
The sides could not find common ground on key matters, including the Strait of Hormuz and the country’s development of nuclear technology, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting said on Telegram. Key among the differences in Pakistan was whether Iran would commit to not seeking to develop a nuclear weapon, Vance said. “We haven’t seen that yet. We hope that we will,” he said. A past deal to limit Iran’s nuclear ambitions in exchange for lifting economic sanctions was negotiated under Barack Obama in 2015, but the first Trump administration ripped up that deal in 2018. Trump said Sunday that the meeting went well and that “most points were agreed to.” “But the only point that really mattered, NUCLEAR, was not,” he wrote on Truth Social. That disconnect—saying it was going well, while also naming the one issue that didn’t move—sits at the center of the breakdown.
Pakistan, whose government mediated the U.S.-Iran talks, urged the U.S. and Iran to continue their ceasefire even as peace talks concluded in Islamabad without an agreement to end the war. In a post on X, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar characterized the 21-hour summit as both intense and constructive, saying the nations should maintain the talks’ “positive spirit,” move forward with the goal of regionwide “peace and prosperity” and vow to continue to withhold attacks against each other. “It is imperative that the parties continue to uphold their commitment to ceasefire,” he said. He added that Pakistan will stand by.
As diplomatic hopes hang by a thread, the broader situation looks tense. Iranian officials have not released a recent death toll, but the U.S.-based rights group HRANA put the total number of people killed in Iran at almost 3,400, including more than 1,600 civilians. Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz—through which 20% of the world’s oil passed before the war—remains at a virtual standstill and oil prices continue to rise. U.S. Central Command said U.S.
warships are setting conditions to reopen a safe passage after Iran laid mines in the key shipping lane. Meanwhile, Trump said the U.S. would impose its own blockade on the strait, accusing Iran of trying to extort vessels for passage. “Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” he wrote on Truth Social.
In a second post, he again accused Iran of seeking to block the Strait, despite saying he would blockade it himself.
Analysts say the failure in Islamabad reflects divisions that run deeper than one round of talks. “It is no surprise that the U.S.-Iran talks did not end in a diplomatic breakthrough,” Misryoum reported. The Iranian side sees the Strait of Hormuz as “their most potent weapon,” he added, while the Americans want it to “open now.” A U.S. insistence that Tehran limit uranium enrichment and turn over its current stockpile, meanwhile, is a “nonstarter” for
the Iranians, he said. Behind the scenes mediators may still be working, but Misryoum analysis indicates Vance and his team were pushing for movement that Iran was unlikely to accept quickly. Misryoum analysis also points out that the 2015 nuclear agreement took almost two years to be finalized, and that was not sealed during a war. And even with the ceasefire still holding—eight days from ticking over into something new—the next steps are anything but
automatic.
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