US, Iran delegations depart Islamabad; both sides reached understanding on several points, but “views far apart” on two to three issues..
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar urged the United States and Iran to remain committed to a ceasefire after both countries ended historic face-to-face talks without an agreement on Sunday. “It is imperative that the parties continue to uphold their commitment to the ceasefire,” Dar said in a press conference following the conclusion of the 21-hour marathon talks.
Dar expressed Pakistan’s readiness to continue to play its role to “facilitate engagement and dialogue” between the US and Iran.
He hoped that both sides would “continue with the positive spirit to achieve durable peace and prosperity for the entire region and beyond”. The foreign minister also thanked Iran and the US for following through on the ceasefire call by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and accepting the invitation for the Islamabad Talks.
Dar stated that he, along with Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, “helped mediate several rounds of intense and constructive negotiations between the two sides, that continued through the last 24 hours and ended this morning”.
The US delegation departed Pakistan on Sunday morning after US Vice President JD Vance announced that talks with Iran, which began on Saturday afternoon, had failed to reach an agreement.
Iran’s state media, including Press TV and Mehr, reported that the Iranian delegation has departed Islamabad as well.
Later, Dar shared a video of their departure on X.
The delegation was seen off by Dar, Field Marshal Munir, National Assembly.
‘Our final and best offer’
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Sunday morning, Vance said both parties “had a number of substantive discussions that’s the good news”.
“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 USA,” he said. “We have made very clear what our red lines are, what things we are willing to accommodate them on and what things we are not willing to accommodate them on,” Vance said, adding that the Iranian delegation had “chosen not to accept our terms”.
Vance began the press conference by appreciating Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and CDF Munir, saying that they were “incredible hosts”. He also clarified that “whatever shortcomings were in the negotiations were not because of Pakistanis, who did an amazing job and really tried to help us and the Iranians bridge the gap and get to a deal”. When the US vice president was asked to elaborate on what the Iranians had rejected, he began by saying: “I won’t go into all the details because I don’t want to negotiate in public after we have negotiated for 21 hours in private. But the simple fact is that we need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek nuclear weapons and that they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon.”
That, he said, was the “core goal of the US president, and that’s what we have tried to achieve through these negotiations”.
Vance added that while Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities had been “destroyed”, the “simple question is: do we see a fundamental commitment of will for the Iranians not to develop a nuclear weapon, not just now, not just two years from now, but for the long term?”
“We haven’t seen that yet, we hope that we will,” he said.
Vance was also asked whether Iranian frozen assets were discussed during the negotiations.
“We talked about all those issues, and we talked about a number of issues beyond that. And so, certainly those things came up. But again, we just could not get to a situation where the Iranians were willing to accept our terms.”
He added that he believed the US delegates were “quite flexible” and “accommodating”.
US President Donald Trump, he said, had told the delegates that they need to “come here in good faith and make your best effort to get a deal”. “We did that. And unfortunately, we were unable to make any headway,” Vance said.
Lastly, the US vice president was asked how frequently the American delegates had been communicating with Trump throughout the negotiations. Vance said they had been talking to Trump consistently, besides other top US officials. “We were constantly communicating with the team because we were negotiating in good faith. And we leave here with a very simple proposal: a method of understanding that is our final and best offer. We will see if the Iranians accept it,” he said. Source: dawn.com/news
