Vice President JD Vance delivered an update about negotiations with Iran as reporters pressed him about why the talks were stalled — and what might come next.
Vance spoke from Islamabad, Pakistan, early Sunday local time, thanking the leaders of the country for bringing the trilateral negotiations together between the U.S. and Iranian delegations. It was unclear what the terms of the negotiation were and what consequences would result from rejecting the American team’s terms.
“The bad news is we have not reached an agreement,” Vance said. “I think that’s bad news for Iran, much more than it is for the United States of America. So we go back to the United States having not made 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 that as clear as we possibly could and they’ve chosen not to accept our terms.”
Vance did not share additional information, adding he would not “negotiate in public after we negotiated for 21 hours in private.”
He said that the U.S. diplomatic team wanted an affirmative commitment that Iran would not pursue a nuclear weapon or make moves to achieve a nuclear weapon. Vance added that although the Iranian nuclear facilities have been destroyed, the Americans wanted a guarantee that Iranians would agree to the terms of the negotiations.
“But the simple question is, do we see a fundamental commitment of will for the Iranians not to develop a nuclear weapon, not just now, not just two years from now, but for the longterm,” Vance said. “We haven’t seen that yet but we hope that we will.”
“We leave here with a very simple proposal, a method of understanding that is our final and best offer,” Vance added. “We’ll see if the Iranians accept it.”
Nic Robertson, CNN International Diplomatic Editor, described the suspended talks as “a fundamental blow.”
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