“They have chosen not to accept our terms,” Vance said. “The simple fact is that 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 quickly achieve a nuclear weapon.”
The negotiations — the highest-level meeting between an American official and Iranians since the 1979 Islamic revolution — were an effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and forestall what President Donald Trump threatened would be a bombing campaign to send Iran back to the “stone ages.” They came as the world economy is teetering, oil and other commodity prices have spiked, and amid growing concern at home and abroad that there are few easy off-ramps to avoid a long and costly war.
Vance did not say whether this meant the United States and Israel would resume their attacks on Iran, or escalate them, possibly targeting civilian infrastructure as the president has threatened.
“The bad news is we have not reached an agreement,” Vance said. “And I think that’s bad news for Iran much more than it’s bad news for the United States of America.”
Trump, who was watching a UFC fight in Miami while Vance briefed the media in Islamabad, has not said whether he would pick up where he left off last week — threatening to destroy Iranian civilization.
“We win regardless,” Trump said earlier Saturday. “We defeated them militarily.”
But the United States’ military victory was apparently not enough to ensure that the president’s most consistent objective — to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon — was achieved.
“We’ve made very clear what our red lines are,” Vance said.