Pakistan talks collapse
U.S. and Iranian negotiators ended 21 hours of ceasefire talks in Pakistan without an agreement, with the U.S. delegation led by Vice‑President J.D. Vance and both sides blaming the other for unreasonable demands. The breakdown has cast doubt on a ceasefire and on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and was followed by continued regional violence including Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon and reported casualties in Gaza. (apnews.com) (theguardian.com) (cnn.com) (aljazeera.com) (timesofisrael.com)
U.S. and Iranian negotiators left Islamabad on April 12 without a ceasefire deal after 21 hours of talks, leaving the latest truce effort hanging. (apnews.com) Vice President J.D. Vance led the U.S. delegation in Pakistan’s capital and said Tehran would not make an “affirmative commitment” to forgo a nuclear weapon or the tools to build one quickly. Iranian officials said the talks were “intensive” but accused Washington of making excessive demands. (abcnews.com, aljazeera.com) The meeting was unusual on its own: it was a face-to-face U.S.-Iran session in Islamabad, with Pakistan acting as host and go-between after weeks of war and a fragile two-week ceasefire. Associated Press described it as a historic direct encounter between the two sides. (apnews.com) The immediate dispute was not only about battlefield calm. It was also about Iran’s nuclear program and the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf that carries a large share of the world’s oil shipments. (cbsnews.com, cnn.com) That made the Pakistan talks bigger than a single ceasefire text. If the talks had held, they could have steadied shipping through Hormuz and reduced pressure on oil markets already rattled by threats to tanker traffic. (cnn.com, cnbc.com) Instead, fighting around the region continued as the delegations packed up. Al Jazeera reported that Israel rejected a ceasefire with Hezbollah before talks with Lebanese officials next week and that at least 10 people, including three emergency workers, were killed in fresh Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon. (aljazeera.com) In Gaza, The Times of Israel reported several Palestinian deaths in Israeli strikes on April 11, while the Israeli military also said a soldier was seriously hurt in an operational accident. (timesofisrael.com) Washington’s public line was that Tehran refused terms tied to nuclear restraint. Tehran’s public line was that it would not accept what it described as unlawful or one-sided conditions, while continuing to deny that it seeks an atomic bomb. (apnews.com, aljazeera.com) For now, the result is simpler than the diplomacy around it: the negotiators met, talked through the night, and left Pakistan without the agreement they came to get. (apnews.com)
