The US and Iran failed to reach an agreement after marathon 21-hour talks in the Pakistani capital Islamabad throwing the two-week Middle East ceasefire into doubt. 

US Vice President JD Vance, who led the US side at the negotiations, said no agreement was reached with Iran would not commit to forgoing a nuclear weapon, adding that US negotiators gave their “final and best offer,” but Tehran refused to accept the US’ terms for a deal.

However, Iran's state media reported  that the United States’ demands “prevented a common framework and agreement” and that negotiations had ended.

"The bad ‌news is that we have not reached an agreement, and I think that's bad news for Iran much more than it's bad news for the United States of America," Vance told reporters after the talks ended. "So we go back to the United States having not come to an agreement. We've made very clear what our red lines are.

"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. That is the core goal of the president of the United States, and that's what we've tried to achieve through these negotiations."

Vance said the US delegation had entered the talks with instructions to negotiate in good faith and try to secure a deal, but discussions did not lead to progress.

“We just could not get to a situation where the Iranians were willing to accept our terms. I think we were quite flexible, we were quite accommodating,” he said.

He added, “The president told us, you need to come here in good faith and make your best effort to get a deal. We did that and unfortunately we weren’t able to make any headway.”

The vice president also noted that several issues were discussed during the talks, including Iran’s frozen assets, though he did not provide details.

He also said the US delegation remained in regular contact with President Donald Trump and senior officials throughout the negotiations.

“We were talking to the president consistently… a half dozen times, a dozen times over the past 21 hours,” he said, adding that the team was also in touch with the broader national security leadership.