ISLAMABAD — U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance returned to the United States without a nuclear agreement after 21 hours of negotiations with Iranian leaders in Islamabad, Pakistan, that ended early Sunday morning. The talks were the first high-level face-to-face meetings between top American and Iranian political leaders since the 1979 revolution.

The key sticking point was Iran's refusal to agree not to develop a nuclear weapon. "The bad news is that we have not reached the agreement. And I think that's bad news for Iran much more than it's bad news for the United States of America," Vance said.

The U.S. delegation included Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. The Iranian delegation included Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Pakistan hosted the talks and helped broker the cease-fire that allowed them to occur.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said the U.S. made "excessive demands." He added, "One should not have expected that we could reach an agreement in a single session."

Vance indicated that the U.S. position had been conveyed in final form. "We leave here with a very simple proposal, a method of understanding that is our final and best offer. We will see if the Iranians accept it," he said.

President Trump set a two-week timeframe for diplomatic talks with Iran. After one week, one week remained in that period for potential further negotiations. The Pakistani government said it was imperative that the U.S. and Iran uphold the cease-fire and said it would try to host further talks in the coming days.

Pakistani Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed offered a different assessment of the outcome. "No, talks are not dead. There's a stalemate. The fact is that top leadership met face to face," he said.