ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – APRIL 11: U.S. Vice President JD Vance (C) walks with Pakistan’s Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Navy Workers Self-discipline Marshall Asim Munir (L), and Pakistani Deputy High Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar after arriving for talks with Iranian officers on April 11, 2026 at Islamabad, Pakistan. (Describe by Jacquelyn Martin – Pool/Getty Photos)
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Vice President JD Vance stated early on Sunday in Pakistan that U.S. officers are leaving peace talks after the Iranian delegation refused to agree now to now not make a nuclear weapon.
“We have been at it now for 21 hours, and we’ve had a number of substantive discussions with the Iranians. That’s the good news,” he stated in a press convention following the talks. “The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement.”
Essentially the predominant sticking level, Vance stated, was on the jabber of Iran’s unwillingness to provide up its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
“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,” he stated, noting it’s some distance the “core goal” that President Donald Trump hoped to prevail in with the negotiations. “They have chosen not to accept our terms.”
The vp stated he spoke with Trump “a half dozen times, a dozen times, over the past 21 hours,” as well to with Secretary of Insist Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Adm. Brad Cooper, head of the U.S. Central Tell.
“We were constantly in communication with the team because we were negotiating in good faith,” Vance stated, speaking at a podium alongside particular envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
“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,” he stated. A short time later, the vp waved goodbye from the cease of the steps as he boarded Air Force Two in Islamabad.
The Iranian delegation, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, discussed with their U.S. and Pakistani counterparts the accurate system to draw the ceasefire already threatened by deep disagreements and Israel’s persisted assaults against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, whose properly being ministry stated the death toll has surpassed 2,000.
Qalibaf stated Iranian negotiators did now now not have faith the U.S. side “due to the experiences of the two previous wars.”
“My colleagues on the Iranian delegation … raised forward-looking initiatives, but the opposing side ultimately failed to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation in this round of negotiations,” stated in a post on X. “America has understood our logic and principles, and now it’s time for it to decide whether it can earn our trust or not?”
Varied Iranian command media reviews cited stark differences in negotiations for the breakdown within the talks, including the elimination of nuclear offers from the nation and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran is demanding administration of the Strait of Hormuz, cost of battle reparations and a ceasefire across the jam, including in Lebanon, primarily primarily based on Iranian command TV and officers. It’s additionally seeking the starting up of its frozen assets foreign and desires to fetch transit expenses within the strait.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar stated his nation will attempt and facilitate a unusual dialogue between Iran and the U.S. within the arriving days.
“It is imperative that the parties continue to uphold their commitment to ceasefire,” Dar stated.
The historical talks ended days after the fragile, two-week ceasefire was presented. Vance’s feedback did now now not designate what would happen after that period expired or whether or now now not the ceasefire would remain in living.
The Iranian delegation arrived dressed in murky in mourning for the leisurely Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and others killed within the battle. They carried sneakers and bags of some college students killed all around the U.S. bombing of a college subsequent to a militia compound, the Iranian government stated. The Pentagon has stated the strike is below investigation.
“There were mood swings from the two sides and the temperature went up and down during the meeting,” one Pakistani source immediate Reuters in reference to the first round of talks.
For the U.S.-Iran talks, Islamabad, a metropolis of greater than 2 million people, was locked down with hundreds of paramilitary personnel and militia troops on the streets.
U.S. destroyers transit the Strait of Hormuz
The peace talks took living as two American warships transited thru the Strait of Hormuz for the first time since the starting up of the battle. The U.S. Central Tell stated the warships had been taking section in a mission to positive the waterway of sea mines build in living by Iran.
The ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran that began Tuesday has draw below tension as Iran continues to dam most transport traffic thru the strait, the enviornment’s most serious chokepoint for oil and fuel offers.
U.S. Central Tell stated that forces began environment instances for clearing mines within the strait, as two U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers conducted operations. The united statesFrank E. Peterson and the united statesMichael Murphy transited the strait and operated within the Arabian Gulf as section of a broader mission to positive sea mines previously laid by Iran’s Islamic Modern Guards Corps, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth stated in a post on X.
“Today, we began the process of establishing a new passage and we will share this safe pathway with the maritime industry soon to encourage the free flow of commerce,” Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of CENTCOM, stated in an announcement.
“We’re sweeping the strait. Whether we make a deal or not makes no difference to me,” U.S. President Donald Trump immediate journalists as high-stakes talks persisted into the night time and the time approached 2 a.m. in Pakistan.
Iran’s command media, on the opposite hand, earlier stated Iran pressured a U.S. militia ship that was attempting to unsuitable the strait to flip around. MS Now later reported that commercial maritime traffic systems exhibiting the united statesMichael Murphy crossing the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf weren’t reliable.
Dreary Saturday, Iran’s Islamic Modern Guard Corps warned that any strive by militia vessels to transit the Strait of Hormuz would be met with “a strong response.” Fully non-militia vessels would be allowed to slip below particular rules, the IRGC stated in an announcement carried by Iranian media.
One after the other, a senior Iranian source immediate Reuters the U.S. had agreed to delivery frozen assets held in Qatar and other foreign banks, but a U.S. official straight denied the file.
Tankers exit the Gulf during the strait
Three supertankers handed thru the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, transport info showed, marking what seemed to be the first vessels to exit the Gulf since the U.S.-Iran ceasefire deal.
Tehran’s blockade of the strait, a chokepoint for approximately 20% of world oil and liquefied natural fuel shipments, since the starting up of the Iran battle at the tip of February, has disrupted world vitality offers and sent oil costs soaring.
The Liberia-flagged Very Tremendous Impolite Carrier (VLCC) Serifos and China-flagged VLCCs Cospearl Lake and He Rong Hai, entered and exited the “Hormuz Passage trial anchorage” that bypasses Iran’s Larak Island on Saturday, LSEG info showed.
Each and every vessel is in a position to carrying 2 million barrels of oil.
Serifos, carrying crude loaded from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in early March, is anticipated to arrive at Malaysia’s Malacca port on April 21, info from LSEG and analytics agency Kpler showed.
Cospearl Lake is encumbered with Iraqi oil and He Rong Hai is carrying Saudi crude, the identical info showed.
Both VLCCs are chartered by Unipec, the buying and selling arm of Chinese vitality big Sinopec, primarily primarily based on the solutions.
Trump’s frustration with Iran
Trump has expressed frustration with Iran persevering with to dam most transport traffic thru the Strait of Hormuz.
In an announcement Tuesday night time, Trump stated that the U.S. would conform to a two-week suspension of hostilities field to Iran agreeing to a total and immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
However since then, vessel traffic thru the strait stays with regards to as tightly throttled as it has been since the battle began on Feb. 28.
In a Reality Social post on Thursday night time, Trump fumed, “There are reports that Iran is charging fees to tankers going through the Hormuz Strait — They better not be and, if they are, they better stop now!”
Iran “is doing a very poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz,” the president wrote in a custom-up post. “That is not the agreement we have!”
Israel and Lebanon can admire assert negotiations
Negotiations between Israel and Lebanon are anticipated to delivery Tuesday in Washington, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s place of job stated Friday, after Israel’s surprise announcement authorizing talks despite the international locations’ lack of official relatives.
However hundreds in Lebanon protested the planned negotiations, and High Minister Nawaf Salam stated he had postponed a planned day shuttle to Washington “in light of the current internal circumstances.” It was now now not straight positive what that intended for the talks.
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Israel wants the Lebanese government to guage accountability for disarming Hezbollah, unheard of esteem was envisaged in a November 2024 ceasefire. On the replacement hand it’s some distance unclear whether or now now not Lebanon’s navy can confiscate weapons from the militant crew, which has survived efforts to curb its power for decades.
Israel’s insistence that the ceasefire in Iran does now not embody a cease in its stopping with Hezbollah has threatened to sink the deal. The militant crew joined the battle in assist of Iran within the gap days. Israel adopted up with airstrikes and a floor invasion.
The day the Iran ceasefire deal was presented, Israel pounded Beirut with airstrikes, killing greater than 300 people within the deadliest day in Lebanon since the battle began, primarily primarily based on the nation’s Effectively being Ministry.
Qatar to totally resume maritime navigation actions
Qatar’s Ministry of Transport presented the plump resumption of maritime navigation actions efficient Sunday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time, extending the choice to “all categories of marine vessels and transport modes.”
The ministry informed operators in an announcement to conform with safety protocols.
It was now now not straight positive whether or now now not the choice intended that Qatari vessels would be allowed to transit the Strait of Hormuz, which remained successfully closed.
Pope Leo blasts ‘delusion of omnipotence’ fueling battle
In his strongest phrases but, Pope Leo XIV denounced the “delusion of omnipotence” that’s fueling the U.S.-Israel battle in Iran and demanded that political leaders cease and negotiate peace.
Leo presided over an night time prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica on the identical day the US and Iran began face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan and as a fragile ceasefire held.
History’s first U.S.-born pope did now not mention the U.S. or Trump in his prayer, which was planned prior to the talks had been presented. However Leo’s tone and message regarded directed at Trump and U.S. officers, who admire boasted of U.S. militia superiority and justified the battle in spiritual terms.
“Enough of the idolatry of self and money!” Leo stated. “Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!”
In the basilica pews was the archbishop of Tehran, Belgian Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu. The U.S. was represented within the diplomatic corps by its deputy chief of mission, Laura Hochla, the U.S. Embassy stated.
— Reuters and the Connected Press contributed to this file
