ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – APRIL 11: US Vice President JD Vance (C) walks with Pakistan Defense Forces Chief of Defense Staff and Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir (L) and Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar after arriving for talks with Iranian officials in Islamabad, Pakistan, April 11, 2026. (Photo by Jacqueline Martin – Poole/Getty Images)
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Vice President JD Vance said in Pakistan early Sunday that US officials were leaving peace talks after the Iranian delegation refused to agree not to develop nuclear weapons.
“We have been at this for 21 hours and we have had many substantive discussions with the Iranians. This is good news,” he said at a news conference after the talks. “The bad news is that we haven’t been able to reach an agreement.”
The main sticking point, Vance said, was the issue of Iran’s unwillingness to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
“We need to see a positive commitment that they will not seek nuclear weapons, and they will not seek equipment that would enable them to quickly acquire nuclear weapons,” he said, adding that this was the “main goal” that President Donald Trump hoped to achieve with negotiations. “They have decided not to accept our conditions.”
The vice president said he spoke with Trump “half a dozen times, a dozen times in the last 21 hours,” as well as with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant and US Central Command head Adm. Brad Cooper.
“We were in constant contact with the team as we negotiated in good faith,” Vance said, speaking on stage with special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
He said, “We are going here with a very simple proposal, a method of understanding that is our final and best proposal. We will see whether the Iranians accept it or not.” A short while later, the Vice President waved goodbye at the top of the stairs as he boarded Air Force Two in Islamabad.
Various Iranian state media reports cited huge differences in negotiations as reasons for the talks’ failure, including over the removal of nuclear material from the country and reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Tasnim news agency said “excessive” US demands had hindered efforts to reach an agreement.
The historic talks ended just days after a fragile, two-week ceasefire was announced. Vance’s comments did not indicate what would happen after the end of that period or whether the ceasefire would hold.
The Iranian delegation, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, discussed with their American and Pakistani counterparts how to advance a ceasefire already at risk over deep differences and Israel’s continued attacks against Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, whose health ministry said the death toll has exceeded 2,000.
The Iranian delegation arrived wearing black in mourning for the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and others killed in the war. The Iranian government said they took shoes and bags of some students killed during a US bombing of a school next to a military compound. The Pentagon has said the attack is under investigation.
“There were mood swings on both sides during the meeting and the temperature kept going up and down,” a Pakistani source told Reuters in reference to the first round of talks.
For the US-Iran talks, Islamabad, a city of more than 2 million, was cordoned off with thousands of paramilitary and army personnel on the streets.
US destroyers transit the Strait of Hormuz
The peace talks came as two US warships passed through the Strait of Hormuz for the first time since the conflict began. US Central Command said the warships were taking part in a mission to clear mines laid in the waterway by Iran.
A ceasefire between the US and Iran that began on Tuesday has come under strain as Iran continues to block most shipping traffic through the strait, the world’s most important chokepoint for oil and gas supplies.
US Central Command said forces began setting conditions to clear mines in the strait, as two US Navy guided-missile destroyers conducted the operation. The USS Frank E. Peterson and USS Michael Murphy transited the strait and operated in the Arabian Gulf as part of a broader mission to clear sea mines previously laid by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement. post on x.
“Today, we began the process of establishing a new passage and we will soon share this safe passage with the maritime industry to encourage the free flow of commerce,” Admiral Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander, said in a statement.
US President Donald Trump told reporters, “We are clearing the strait. It doesn’t matter to me whether we make a deal or not.”
However, Iranian state media earlier said Iran forced back a US military ship that was attempting to transit the strait. MS Now later reported that commercial marine traffic systems showing the USS Michael Murphy crossing the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf were not reliable.
Late Saturday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that any attempt by military vessels to transit the Strait of Hormuz would be met with a “strong response.” In a statement carried by Iranian media, the IRGC said only non-military vessels would be allowed to pass under specific rules.
Separately, a senior Iranian source told Reuters the US had agreed to release assets held in Qatar and other foreign banks, but a US official immediately denied the report.
Tankers exit the Gulf through the strait
Three supertankers passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, shipping data showed, appearing to be the first ships to leave the Gulf since the US-Iran ceasefire deal.
Since the start of the Iran war in late February, Tehran’s blockade of the strait, a chokepoint for about 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, has disrupted global energy supplies and sent oil prices soaring.
The Liberia-flagged very large crude carrier (VLCC) Serifos and China-flagged VLCCs Pearl Lake and He Rong Hai entered and exited the “Hormuz Passage Trial Anchorage” that bypasses Iran’s Larak Island on Saturday, LSEG data showed.
Each ship is capable of carrying 2 million barrels of oil.
The Serifos, which took on crude from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in early March, is expected to arrive at Malaysia’s Malacca port on April 21, data from LSEG and analytics firm Kpler showed.
Lake Cosperl is filled with Iraqi oil and He Rong Hai is carrying Saudi crude, the data showed.
According to the data, both VLCCs are chartered by Unipec, the trading arm of Chinese energy giant Sinopec.
Trump’s disappointment with Iran
Trump has expressed frustration over Iran’s blocking of most shipping traffic. Strait of Hormuz.
In an announcement Tuesday evening, Trump said the US would agree to a two-week suspension of hostilities provided Iran agreed to the full and immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
But since then, ship traffic through the strait has remained almost as tight as it was since the war began on February 28.
In a Truth Social post Thursday evening, Trump fumed, saying, “There are reports that Iran is charging tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz – they better not be doing that and, if they are, they better stop right now!”
“Iran is doing a very bad job, allowing oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz is outrageous, some would even say outrageous,” the president wrote in a follow-up post. “This is not the agreement we have between us!”
There will be direct talks between Israel and Lebanon
Talks between Israel and Lebanon are expected to begin Tuesday in Washington, the office of Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Friday, following Israel’s surprise announcement authorizing talks despite the lack of official ties between the countries.
But thousands of people in Lebanon protested the planned talks and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said he had postponed a planned visit to Washington “in view of the current internal circumstances”. It was not immediately clear what the talks meant.
Israel wants the Lebanese government to take responsibility for disarming Hezbollah, as envisioned in the November 2024 ceasefire. But it is unclear whether Lebanon’s military can seize weapons from a militant group that has eluded efforts to curb its power for decades.
Israel’s insistence that a ceasefire in Iran not include a halt to its fighting with Hezbollah threatens to derail the deal. In the early days, the militant group joined the war in support of Iran. After this Israel launched air strikes and ground attacks.
On the day the Iran ceasefire agreement was announced, Israel carried out airstrikes on Beirut, killing more than 300 people in Lebanon’s deadliest day since the war began, according to the country’s health ministry.
Qatar to fully resume maritime shipping activities
Qatar’s Transport Ministry on Sunday announced the full resumption of maritime navigation activities from 6am to 6pm local time, and extended the decision to “all categories of marine vessels and transport modes”.
The ministry, in a statement, urged operators to follow safety protocols.
It was not immediately clear whether the decision meant Qatari ships would be allowed to transit the Strait of Hormuz, which is effectively closed.
Pope Leo criticizes ‘illusion of omnipotence’ that promotes war
In his strongest words yet, Pope Leo XIV condemned the “delusion of omnipotence” that is fueling the US–Israel war in Iran and demanded that political leaders stop it and negotiate peace.
Leo presided over an evening prayer service at St. Peter’s Basilica on the same day that the United States and Iran began face-to-face talks in Pakistan and a fragile ceasefire was held.
The first American-born Pope in history did not mention the United States or Trump in his prayer, which was planned before the talks were announced. But Leo’s tone and message appeared to be directed at Trump and US officials, who have claimed US military superiority and justified the war in religious terms.
“Enough of the idolatry of self and wealth!” Leo said. “Enough displays of power! Enough wars!”
In the basilica pews was the Archbishop of Tehran, Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu of Belgium. The US Embassy said the US was represented in the diplomatic corps by its deputy chief of mission Laura Hochla.
— Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report
