US–Iran talks break down, fragile ceasefire in jeopardy

Key topics:US–Iran talks collapse; no deal reached after 21-hour meetingNuclear demands and Hormuz disputes block ceasefire progressFailed talks risk renewed war, oil supply and price shocks.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox every morning on weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Eric Martin, Catherine Lucey and Patrick Sykes.The US and Iran ended direct talks in Pakistan without an agreement, putting a fragile ceasefire at risk and raising doubts over efforts to end a six-week war that has killed thousands and disrupted global energy supplies.Vice President JD Vance, who led the American delegation, said he’s returning home without a deal after Iran declined to commit to not pursuing a nuclear weapon.“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,” Vance told reporters early Sunday in Islamabad. “And we’ve made that as clear as we possibly could, and they have chosen not to accept our terms.”Iran’s semi-official media cited “excessive” US demands, while the foreign ministry said it was natural that differences wouldn’t be resolved in a single round of talks, leaving the door open for more discussions..Read more:.FT: Trump says US could soon destroy Iran ‘in one night’, demands opening Strait of Hormuz.The abrupt end to the negotiations after 21 hours of talks leaves the two-week ceasefire clinched last week in limbo. US President Donald Trump has yet to comment, though he posted on social media a story about a naval blockade that could prevent Iran’s oil exports through the strategic Strait of Hormuz. The waterway remains a key point of contention, with Tehran insisting on maintaining its grip after bringing vessel traffic — which accounts for a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies — to a standstill following the US-Israeli war that began in late February.. “Given the maximalist demands on both sides, the talks were doomed to fail,” said Jean-Loup Samaan, a senior research fellow at the Middle East Institute of the National University of Singapore, citing differences over Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear program. “So far there’s no sign that Iran is willing to revise its position on those issues. But overall this could quickly and surely lead to the resumption of the war.”The lack of a deal is “bad news for Iran much more than it is bad news for the US,” Vance said on Sunday before departing Islamabad, where the negotiations were held.“We leave here with a very simple proposal, a method of understanding that is our final and best offer,” Vance said. “We’ll see if the Iranians accept it.”The two sides reached an understanding on various issues but disagreements remained “on two or three key points,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmail Baghaei said.“It was natural that one should not have expected to reach an agreement in a single session from the outset,” he said on state television after the talks. “Diplomacy never ends” and Iran will “continue to pursue national interests under all circumstances,” he added.The US sought concessions they couldn’t obtain in the war, including around the Strait of Hormuz and the removal of nuclear materials, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said. Failure to reach a deal after the marathon talks will likely jolt oil and gas markets on Monday. Two empty supertankers attempted to make their way through Hormuz and into the Persian Gulf on Sunday, only to make a last-minute U-turn just as peace negotiations between the US and Iran ended.“Hope had been cautiously rising last week but this could set us back to levels that we were trading at prior to the ceasefire announcement,” said Nick Twidale, chief market analyst at AT Global Markets in Sydney. “I would think we will see oil open higher alongside the dollar.”Pakistan said the talks were “constructive” and called on both sides to maintain the ceasefire, saying it would continue to facilitate discussions between the US and Iran in the coming days. In a first reaction by an Israeli official, Israeli security cabinet minister Zeev Elkin told Army Radio that the two-week ceasefire period hadn’t yet ended and “it’s possible that there will be attempts to generate more talks.” The Israel Defense Forces over the weekend continued their attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon, where it is fighting a parallel war against the Iran-aligned militant group. More than 200 strikes were carried out to attack Hezbollah’s infrastructure and provide air support for Israeli ground troops in southern Lebanon, the IDF said on Saturday..Vance arrived in Islamabad on Saturday and was joined by Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to negotiate with a 71-member strong Iranian delegation led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf. “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,” Vance said. “That is the core goal of the president of the United States, and that’s what we’ve tried to achieve through these negotiations.”Michael Kugelman, a resident senior fellow for South Asia at Atlantic Council, said the high profile nature of the talks shows the US’s commitment to finding a peace deal, and there’s likely to be steps taken to find a resolution. “The US, for domestic political reasons, wants a deal that enables it to exit the war,” he said in a post on X. “Despite Vance’s comments, this likely isn’t over. More talks could come,” although it’s unclear if that would take place in Pakistan or elsewhere, he said.Direct talks between the two sides started at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday in the Pakistani capital. A team of technical experts had joined the meetings after the first hour, with discussions focused on the Strait of Hormuz, a potential ceasefire extension and phased sanctions relief, according to a US official and a Pakistani official familiar with the matter. Trump, who has said that curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions was a reason for the war, downplayed the importance of the talks on Saturday night. As he departed the White House to attend a UFC fight in Miami, he declared: “Whether we make a deal or not makes no difference to me. And the reason is because we’ve won.”Ghalibaf had been wary of the negotiations before the talks began, saying on his arrival in Islamabad on Saturday that “we have goodwill, but we do not have trust.” “The heavy loss of our senior figures, loved ones, and fellow citizens has only strengthened our resolve to pursue the rights and interests of the Iranian people more firmly than ever,” Baghaei, the foreign ministry spokesman, said.Iran has also insisted that a ceasefire in Lebanon should be a pre-condition for talks. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was not a party to the Islamabad negotiations, said enriched nuclear material should be removed from Iran with or without an agreement.Israel has accused Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons, an allegation that Tehran denies..Read more:.The Iran war is becoming a battle for control of Hormuz: Marc Champion.The war in the Middle East has claimed more than 5,600 lives, according to governments and non-governmental agencies. More than 3,600 people have been killed in Iran, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency estimates, while more than 2,000 people have died in Lebanon, the government says.Israel said it’s killed more than 1,400 Hezbollah militants, including 200 last Wednesday.Israel has reported about three dozen deaths, and a similar number have been killed across Gulf Arab nations, government reports show. There have also been several dozen casualties in Iraq. Thirteen American troops have been killed, according to US Central Command..© 2026 Bloomberg L.P.

US–Iran talks break down, fragile ceasefire in jeopardy

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