Summary of this article
Lengthy US-Iran talks in Islamabad failed to secure a deal but helped build rapport and reduce mistrust between negotiators.
Washington believes the goodwill and clearer read of Iran’s position could push Tehran toward accepting US terms.
Trump’s Hormuz blockade is seen as added pressure, with the US insisting Iran abandon nuclear ambitions—something Tehran continues to resist.
US Vice President JD Vance-led talks for peace with Iran may have been unsuccessful, but the 21-hour-long discussions helped build goodwill with the new leadership in Tehran, according to a media report.
According to the Washington Post, which quoted unnamed US officials, Washington believes that Iran may accept their proposals to stop the deadly and expensive war because of the degree of goodwill that was generated during the negotiations in Islamabad.
It said that the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz announced by President Donald Trump might compel Iran to reach an agreement.
“A US official with knowledge of the negotiations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks, said Vance was keenly aware going into the negotiations of the mistrust and risk of misunderstanding between the United States and Iran,” the report said.
The official said Vance and the Iranian negotiators had developed a rapport and became warmer with each other.
Trump appeared to share the assessment. “We had a very intensive negotiation, and toward the end, it got very friendly,” he told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures”. “And we got just about every point we needed except for the fact that they refuse to give up their nuclear ambition,” he said.
The Post report said it became clear to the US team once talks began that the Iranians did not fully appreciate the far-reaching nature of the Trump administration’s insistence that any deal must centre on prohibiting Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Iran has maintained for decades that it has no intention of developing a nuclear weapon, a claim that Trump and his supporters, notably Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have said cannot be taken at face value.
Iran must completely give up its nuclear enrichment capabilities, which can potentially be utilised for civilian purposes, according to the administration. Iran has refused to go that far and appears to have hoped that Trump would settle for something less.
Vance tried to correct that misunderstanding throughout the discussions, the official said.
According to the US official, who did not go into detail about what the Iranians said, Vance also used the negotiations to try to understand how Iran truly felt about the situation it was in. He concluded that Iran thought it had more leverage than US officials believe is justified by the realities on the ground.
Armed with a better understanding of Iran's vulnerabilities, the official said the Trump administration now intends to test them.
