Each side blamed the other for the failure of the 21-hour negotiations to end fighting that ‌has killed thousands and sent global oil prices soaring since it began over six weeks ago.

“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 US,” Vice President JD Vance, the head of the US delegation, told reporters shortly before he left Islamabad.

“So we go back to the US, having not come to an agreement. We’ve made very clear ​what our red lines are.”

The US and Iranian delegations have left Islamabad to return home, Pakistani sources told Reuters. Vance said Iran had chosen not to accept American terms, including not to build 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 achieve a nuclear weapon quickly. That is the core goal of the president of the US, and that’s what we’ve tried to achieve through these negotiations.”

The talks in Islamabad, after a ceasefire earlier in ​the week, were the first direct US-Iranian meeting in more than a decade and the highest-level discussions since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said that “excessive” US demands had hindered reaching an agreement. Other Iranian ​media said there was agreement on a number of issues but that the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear programme were the main points of difference.

A Spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the talks were conducted in an atmosphere of mistrust. “It is natural that we shouldn’t have expected to reach an agreement in just one session,” the Spokesperson was quoted as saying by Iranian media.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said it was “imperative” to maintain the two-week ceasefire that was agreed on Tuesday as the ​two sides attempted to wind down a war that began on February 28 with air strikes by the US and Israel on Iran.

–Reuters–