Iranian envoy says Islamabad talks can create sustainable framework for all parties

High-level talks between the US and Iran over the weekend in Islamabad laid the “foundation for a diplomatic process” and “can create a sustainable framework for the interests of all parties,” the Iranian ambassador to Pakistan said Sunday.

“The Islamabad Talks is not an event but a process,” Reza Amiri Moghadam said in a statement on the US social media company X’s platform.

It came after Pakistan hosted US-Iran negotiations dubbed as the Islamabad Talks after the South Asian country secured a 14-day ceasefire between the United States and Iran on April 8, pausing a conflict that began on Feb. 28 when the US and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran.

US Vice President JD Vance and his team met with an Iranian delegation led by parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf in the Pakistani capital for talks, marking the highest-level direct engagement between the two nations since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Despite the marathon negotiations that began on Saturday and ran through the night into Sunday morning Pakistan time, the two sides stopped short of reaching an agreement.

According to US media reports, the negotiating team led by Vance set several non-negotiable "red lines" for Iran, including ending all uranium enrichment, dismantling major nuclear facilities, retrieving enriched uranium, ending proxy funding and reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

However, Reza said the talks laid the foundation for a diplomatic “process that, if trust and will are strengthened, can create a sustainable framework for the interests of all parties.”

Reflecting on the outcome of the talks, Iranian-American political scientist Vali Nasr said the US-Iran talks “did not get to a deal over the issue of trust.”

“Iran wants to make sure a deal will be implemented and the US will not walk away from it after Iran hands over its enriched uranium and opens the Strait,” Nasr said on the US social media company X’s platform.

Washington “wants both right away. Iran wants first war to be definitively over and guarantees around the deal. The two sides will reassess back in their capitals and there could be another bite at the apple,” Nasr said.

Moghadam thanked Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir for their initiative of “goodwill and good office” for the talks.

“With the tireless efforts of all sectors in Pakistan, including the government, army, police and security forces to facilitate and manage the talks, talks were held in a dignified and befitting atmosphere for the guests in a calm, orderly and secure environment with equal logistic opportunities for both sides,” he added.

Before departing for the US, Vance told reporters in Islamabad that the United States sought a commitment that Iran would not seek a nuclear weapon.

“Unfortunately, we were unable to make any headway,” he added.

Qalibaf said it was now time for Washington to decide whether it could earn Tehran’s trust.