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Special Correspondent: United States Vice
President JD Vance said on Sunday that intensive 21-hour discussions with Iran
did not reach an agreement. He also appreciated Pakistan’s efforts for a deal.
The US and Iranian delegations have left Islamabad to return home. He
appreciated Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Defence Forces and Chief
of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, saying, “Both incredible hosts, and
whatever shortcomings of the negotiation, it wasn't because of the Pakistanis
who did an amazing job and really tried to help us and the Iranians bridge the
gap and get to a deal."The US and Iran failed
to reach an agreement to end their war despite marathon talks that concluded on
Sunday in Islamabad, jeopardising a fragile ceasefire. Each side blamed the
other for the failure of the 21-hour negotiations to end fighting that has
killed thousands and sent global oil prices soaring since it began over six
weeks ago. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said it was
"imperative" to maintain the two-week ceasefire that was agreed on
Tuesday as the two sides attempted to wind down a war that began on February 28
with air strikes by the US and Israel on Iran.The talks in Islamabad,
after a ceasefire earlier in the week, were the first direct US-Iranian meeting
in more than a decade and the highest-level discussions since the 1979 Islamic
Revolution. Trump's stated goals have shifted, but as a minimum, he wants free
passage for global shipping through the strait and the crippling of Iran's
nuclear enrichment programme to ensure it cannot produce an atomic bomb. Tehran
has long denied seeking to build a nuclear weapon.
Israel has also been
bombing Lebanon and says that conflict is not part of the Iran-US ceasefire.
Iran has insisted that the fighting in Lebanon has to stop. The Israeli
military said it struck Hezbollah rocket launchers overnight between Saturday
and Sunday and black smoke could be seen rising in the southern suburbs of the
Lebanese capital Beirut on Sunday. In Israeli villages near the border, air
raid sirens sounded, warning of incoming rocket fire from Lebanon.