US Vice President JD Vance departed from Pakistan after nearly 21 hours of negotiations on Sunday morning — plunging the world into fresh uncertainty over the Iran war. Tehran has accused the United States of making “unreasonable demands” during the talks. Vance said the two countries had held “substantive discussions” on multiple issues. But the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s rights to enrich uranium remained major sticking points.

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. We go back to the United States, having not come to an agreement. We’ve made very clear what our red lines are, what things we’re willing to accommodate them on and what things we’re not willing to accommodate them on. And we’ve made clear as we possibly could. And they have chosen not to accept our terms,” Vance said during a three-minute presser early on Sunday morning.

The US Vice President had departed from Islamabad by 7:00 am on Sunday after leaving their ‘best and final offer’ on the table. The terms were not immediately clear and it remains uncertain whether fresh negotiations will follow the Islamabad Talks. It is also unclear whether the two week ceasefire announced by President Donald Trump will hold after the deadline.

What were the key issues?

Reports citing Pakistani officials had indicated early on Sunday morning that a third round of discussions between the delegation heads had finished and the talks would resume after a break. Then the US vice president addressed the press around 6:30 am to announce that an agreement had not been reached despite 21 hours of talks. Vance departed the country almost immediately after his three-minute press conference.

“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. That is the core goal of the President of the United States. And that’s what we’ve been trying to achieve through these negotiations,” he told reporters.

He added that Iran had refused to accept the “final and best offer” presented by the American side. Meanwhile Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said both countries had reached a consensus on some issues but held different views regarding “2-3 important matters”.

The Foreign Ministry said negotiations fell apart over a “gap between our opinions over two or three important issues.” He did not detail what those issues were. Baghaei said the negotiators discussed the Strait of Hormuz but did not mention any talks about nuclear weapons.

‘Pakistan to continue facilitating US-Iran talks’

Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar called on Iran and the United States to keep their commitment to maintain a ceasefire after the historic face-to-face talks ended without an agreement. He added that Pakistan will continue to play a mediating role and try to facilitate dialogue between Iran and the US in coming days.

“I, along with the Defence Forces Army Chief Field Marshal Syed Sim 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…It is imperative that the parties continue to uphold their commitment to the ceasefire,” he said in a brief statement to the media.