JUST IN: US and Iran peace talks in Pakistan collapse over ‘nuclear weapon issue’

JUST IN: US and Iran peace talks in Pakistan collapse over ‘nuclear weapon issue’

The United States and Iran have failed to reach a peace deal after high-stakes talks in Pakistan, after the Iranians refused to accept American terms not to 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 U.S. 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.

After his brief remarks, Vance boarded his government plane to leave Pakistan.

Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Sunday that no one had expected that talks with the US would reach an agreement in one session.

“Naturally, from the beginning, we should not have expected to reach an agreement in a single session. No one had such an expectation,” ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said, according to state broadcaster IRIB.

He said Tehran was “confident that contacts between us and Pakistan, as well as our other friends in the region, will continue”.

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.

The US and Israel launched war on Iran on February 28 that expanded to the wider Middle East, with Tehran carrying out retaliatory attacks on Israel and neighbouring Gulf countries hosting US assets. More than 2,000 people have been killed and military and civilian areas damaged in the US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

The war also caused a global energy crisis after Iran put a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz through which some 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas exports pass.

The US delegation led by Vance and the Iranian delegation led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf had discussed how to advance a ceasefire already threatened by deep disagreements and Israel’s continued attacks against the Hezbollah group in Lebanon.