Vice President JD Vance, who led the US delegation, said the talks lasted 21 hours in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, but in the end they did not see “an affirmative commitment” from Iran “that they will not seek a nuclear weapon.”

Standing near US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law and White House advisor Jared Kushner, Vance spoke with members of the media before his departure, he said "We've had a number of substantive discussions with the Iranians, 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 United States of America," Vance said.

"We just could not get to a situation where the Iranians would accept our terms," he added, suggesting an expectation of capitulation rather than a mutually balanced agreement.

Iran state media said "excessive demands" sank the possibility of an agreement to end the war at this weekend's peace talks, and Fars news agency added that "the Americans demanded in negotiations everything they could not achieve through war."

In one of the first reactions from Iran, foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said there was no expectation in Tehran of a deal and that the talks fell apart over a “gap between our opinions over two or three important issues.”

"These talks were held after 40 days of imposed war, in an atmosphere of mistrust and suspicion," Esmaeil Baghaei said in remarks to Iranian news outlet SNN. "Naturally, we should not have expected an agreement in just one meeting and no one had such expectations."

However, Baghaei said common ground was found on a number of issues but that "on two, three key topics there were significant differences and, ultimately, the talks did not lead to an agreement."

​He added that the Strait of Hormuz was among the topics discussed by negotiators and blamed “US overreach.” 

Nor the Iranians nor the Americans indicated what will happen after the 14-day ceasefire initially agreed to byboth parties, but Pakistani mediators called on the US and Iran to maintain the ceasefire.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led Tehran's delegation to Pakistan, said now is the time for the US "to decide whether it can earn our trust or not".

In a post on X, Ghalibaf says he emphasised before the negotiations that Iran had "good faith and will" but due to its experiences of two previous wars it had "no trust in the opposing side".

Hopes that had been raised during the marathon talks in Islamabad have for now been put on hold. 

“It is imperative that the parties continue to uphold their commitment to ceasefire,” Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said, adding that his country will try to facilitate a new dialogue between Iran and the US in the coming days.

The discussions in Islamabad began on Saturday, a few days after the fragile ceasefire was announced, as the US-Israeli war that has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, and Israel killed 2,020 in Lebanon in less than seven weeks.

Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz has largely cut off the Persian Gulf and its oil and gas exports from the global economy, sending energy prices soaring.

US President Donald Trump’s first Truth Social post after JD Vance left Pakistan without a deal was a link to a Just The News analysis laying out the US naval blockade of Iran as his next option if Tehran refuses to accept Washington’s “final and best offer.”

“We need to see an affirmative commitment that they will refrain from seeking a nuclear weapon and the tools to quickly achieve one,” 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 United States and Iran entered talks with sharply different proposals and contrasting assumptions about their leverage to end the war. Before negotiations began, the ceasefire was already threatened by deep disagreements and Israel’s continued attacks on Lebanon, in which more than 300 people were killed in less than 24 hours.

Iran’s 10-point proposal ahead of the talks called for a guaranteed end to the war and sought control over the Strait of Hormuz. It included ending fighting against Iran’s “regional allies,” explicitly calling for a halt to Israeli war on Lebanon. The United States’ 15-point proposal includes restricting Iran’s nuclear program and reopening the strait.

During the talks, the US military claimed two destroyers transited the critical waterway ahead of mine-clearing work, a first since the war began. Iran’s state media, however, reported the country's joint military command denied that.

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