After 21 hours of negotiation with whatever is left of the Iranian regime, Vice President JD Vance emerged from the meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan, with a somber update: The talks have failed.
While speaking to the press, Vance explained that the Iranians were not willing to make the necessary commitments not to pursue nuclear weapons in the future, even as he noted their current capacity to do so had been destroyed during Operation Epic Fury. He and the rest of the American delegation will now leave Pakistan, having given the regime a final offer they show no signs of accepting.
BREAKING: Vice President JD Vance says, after 21 hours of negotiations, the U.S. and Iran have NOT reached any sort of agreement
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 12, 2026
"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. The bad news is that… pic.twitter.com/DRFieUUH5m
VANCE: 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. 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 United States of America. So we go back to the United States having not come to an agreement. We've made very clear what our redlines 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 have chosen not to accept our terms.
In later questioning, Vance specifically mentioned not being able to garner any long-term commitments regarding Iran's nuclear ambitions despite describing the United States as being "quite accommodating."
CBS's @JenniferJJacobs: "Was there a framework on anything, and also, did the Iranian frozen assets come up, and did you reach any conclusions on those frozen assets?"
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 12, 2026
Vice President Vance: "We talked about all those issues, Jen, and we talked about a number of issues beyond… pic.twitter.com/PQuwtWruuA
VANCE: But again, we just could not get to a situation where the Iranians were willing to accept our terms. I think that we were quite flexible. We were quite accommodating. The President told us, "You need to come here in good faith and make your best effort to get a deal." We did that, and unfortunately, we weren't able to make any headway.
The second-to-last sentence in the above excerpt tells the tale, in my opinion. I don't think President Donald Trump expected these talks to succeed, something his pretty obvious dismissal of them earlier on Saturday likewise signaled. So why hold these talks if the regime was obviously going to remain locked in its apocalyptic, delusional stupor? To check the box. To say we tried before cranking things back up.
See: Iran Tries to Play Games With Talks
Since the moment the "ceasefire" was announced, and I use quotes around that word on purpose because Iran has blatantly violated it multiple times, the regime has arrogantly rattled its saber. Instead of seeking some form of de-escalation after a month of destruction, they've declared victory, apparently believing they can win this conflict on the backs of social media engagement farming and online memes. I wouldn't count on that, though.
As I've said before, Trump likes to make deals, and I think he legitimately wants an off-ramp here. But what Trump hates more than he likes deals is being embarrassed, and to have his team go to Pakistan and bend the knee to Iran on things like unfreezing assets and lifting sanctions would have been a legacy-defining embarrassment. That was never going to happen, even if Iran's leadership seemed to believe they had the upper hand.
With the recent news that the US Navy is now navigating the Strait of Hormuz and that a new shipping lane has been established, Iran is in the process of losing its final point of leverage. That was always inevitable. A highly depleted terrorist regime was never going to be able to maintain its blockade, which was already largely dependent on threats vs. real capabilities. With oil shipments moving again, Iran has nowhere left to go. They can stick their head in the sand and keep posting statements for the online bot farms, or they can join the rest of us in reality.
I suspect they'll do the former, and the shooting will start again soon enough, and this time, the group of Iranian leaders who have been allowed to survive this conflict for practical reasons, including the loud-mouthed foreign minister, may not enjoy that protection anymore.
Editor's Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.
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