The latest talks to end the war in Iran crumbled abruptly and seemed to have done so before they even really began. The parties must be urged to return to the negotiating table to end the costly conflict.
US vice-president JD Vance emerged from negotiations on Saturday to announce that there was no agreement. He told the world that the Iranians had refused to give up their nuclear weapons ambition. Nothing had been agreed.
The US sees Iran’s desire to develop a nuclear capability as a key condition for peace. The Iranian regime wants sanctions lifted and billions of dollars in frozen funds to be released.
On paper, the two uncompromising sets of demands look almost impossible to reconcile. That is not unusual ― it’s normal to start a bargaining position at polarising ends. Good diplomacy must guide a safe passage to a fair middle.
Even though the war has caused untold damage to the world economy, both sides are trying to build on claims that they are winning the war.
While Iran has lost its leaders, it believes its Strait of Hormuz leverage can be optimised to wring concessions from the US.
At the weekend, US President Donald Trump announced that he would now erect a blockade on the Strait to force Iranians to make a deal. Like the war itself, the wisdom of this latest move is not immediately clear.
It would deepen the resentment of US allies whom Trump has insulted throughout the month-long conflict.
A single session of talks was always unlikely to produce a credible deal. It took two years for former US president Barack Obama’s administration to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran ― in the middle of peacetime, not while war was raging.
Pakistan has to be commended for stepping in to get the two sides into face-to-face talks in Islamabad. The Gulf states, which had been facilitating talks before the war, are no longer in any position to continue playing that role.
As well as firing missiles to Israel, Iran chose to bomb those neighbours who are hosting US military bases.
Until late last week, there were reasonable doubts that Tehran would show up for the talks. Memories are still fresh of the snap attack on its nuclear facilities in 2025. So too memories of the bombs that dropped in the middle of negotiations a month ago, which signalled the start of the war.
Against this background, Iranians would be within their rights to assume the US has not come to the talks in good faith.
That said, Trump’s gesture of sending his deputy to lead the US delegation must be seen as the seriousness with which he approaches the talks. It also signals the pressure Trump is under to end this war.
The two sides have a chance to rescue the talks. But they need to be creative and time is not on their side. The two-week pause is nearing its end.
Chances of a breakthrough in the weekend talks were minimal. A serious protagonist, Israel, was not involved in the marathon meeting — it was bombing parts of Lebanon during the talks.
It’s hard to think that durable peace can be achieved without the involvement of Israel or Iran’s proxies in the region. Israel’s security concerns are among the reasons the US is in this war.
A new date for fresh talks would build on the momentum created at the weekend.
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