(AFP) – Iran and the United States failed to reach an agreement to end the war in the Middle East, US Vice President JD Vance said Sunday after marathon talks in Islamabad, adding that he was leaving after giving Tehran the “final and best offer”. Vance stated that Washington was seeking a “fundamental commitment” from Iran that it would not develop a nuclear weapon, but that “we haven’t seen that” after holding the highest-level meeting between the two sides since the 1979 Islamic revolution. However, he signalled that he was still giving Iran time to consider the offer, with the United States having announced on Tuesday that it would pause attacks with Israel for two weeks pending negotiations.
Pakistan, which hosted the talks and whose leadership had ushered the rival sides to the table, expressed its commitment to facilitate further dialogue and urged both countries to continue respecting the temporary truce. Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB reported that negotiations stalled over “unreasonable demands of the American side”, although the country’s foreign ministry spokesman later remarked that “no one” could have expected an agreement after 40 days of war to be finalized within one session.
The United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, sparking retaliation from Tehran that has plunged the Middle East into conflict and created turmoil in the global economy. Both nations had entered the talks mediated by Pakistan with maximalist positions, and Washington had amped up pressure by deploying minesweeping ships through the vital Strait of Hormuz maritime route. Signs of strain in the negotiations became apparent when Iranian media accused the United States of making “excessive demands” regarding the strait, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil transited before Iran effectively closed it during the war.
US President Donald Trump insisted several hours into the talks on Saturday that the United States had already triumphed on the battlefield by killing Iranian leaders and destroying key military infrastructure. “Whether we make a deal or not makes no difference to me. The reason is because we’ve won,” Trump stated. After 21 hours of discussions in the Pakistani capital, Vance told reporters that no deal could yet be reached. “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,” Vance said before departing for a nearby airport and flying out of Pakistan.
Suggesting that efforts to maintain communication would persist, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar stated that his government would “continue to play its role to facilitate engagement and dialogue between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America in the days to come.” He added that it was imperative for the parties to uphold their commitment to ceasefire. The high-stakes meeting had taken place in Islamabad amidst intense mistrust from both sides.
Iran was in the midst of negotiations on its nuclear programme in February when Trump’s associates Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were involved, prior to the US and Israeli attacks. The early military actions resulted in the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Both Kushner and Witkoff were part of Vance’s team in Pakistan. The 70-member Iranian delegation was led by Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the powerful speaker of parliament, and included Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
Iranian demands for any agreement to conclude the war include the unfreezing of sanctioned Iranian assets and ending Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon, a topic Vance has stated would not be discussed in Islamabad. The opening of the Strait of Hormuz also emerged as a key point of contention. Throughout the war, Iran exercised its global economic leverage by controlling this crucial maritime route, resulting in soaring oil prices and mounting political pressure on Trump as Americans faced rising costs at the pump.
The US military reported on Saturday that two Navy warships transited through the strait to begin clearing it of mines and ensuring it remains a “safe pathway” for tankers. However, the Iranian military denied that any American warships had entered the waterway and warned of potential repercussions should they do so. The Revolutionary Guards’ Naval Command indicated that Iranian assurances of safe passage during the two-week ceasefire applied only to “civilian vessels under specific conditions”.
The United States, affected by skyrocketing oil prices on global markets, imports less oil directly from the Gulf than many of its European allies, which Trump has criticized for not participating in a war that they had not been consulted about beforehand. “We’ll open up the strait even though we don’t use it, because we have a lot of other countries in the world that do use it that are either afraid or weak or cheap,” Trump declared.
Ghalibaf, speaking shortly after his arrival in Pakistan, emphasized that Iran remained highly skeptical of the United States. “Our experience in negotiating with the Americans has always been met with failure and broken promises,” Ghalibaf remarked. Vance indicated before departing for Pakistan that if Iran was willing, the United States would “negotiate in good faith” but warned that they would not be receptive “if they’re going to try to play us.” A major complicating factor has been Israel’s position that the ceasefire does not extend to Lebanon, where the Israeli military has launched significant strikes and a ground invasion in response to fire from Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shia Muslim movement.
Lebanese authorities reported that Israeli strikes on the southern region of Lebanon on Saturday resulted in 18 fatalities, raising the death toll from Israel’s actions since the war began to over 2,000. Israel and Lebanon are scheduled to hold discussions in Washington next week, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted his desire for a peace deal with Lebanon that “will last for generations.” However, Israel has ruled out a ceasefire with Hezbollah, signaling its intent to apply pressure on the historically weak central government in Beirut.
burs/hmn/ceg/axn – AFP teams in Islamabad, Tehran and Washington.
© 2024 AFP
