US Vice President Pence announced on Sunday (April 12) that the US-Iran team failed to reach an agreement after a 21-hour marathon negotiation in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. According to a US official, Pence presented the “final” offer to Iran during the negotiations, listing six “red lines” set by President Trump.
These “red lines” are seen as the prerequisite conditions for the US to agree to end the war with Iran, but Iran did not accept them.
The six “red lines” presented by Pence include:
– Iran must terminate all its uranium enrichment activities;
– Iran must dismantle its major nuclear enrichment facilities (severely damaged in a US airstrike last June);
– Iran must hand over over 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium believed to be buried underground;
– Iran needs to accept a broader “peace, security, and de-escalation framework” including regional allies;
– Iran must stop funding “proxy armed groups” such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthi militants;
– Iran must fully open the Strait of Hormuz without charging any passage fees.
Leading the US negotiation team, Vice President Pence said in a press conference after the negotiations, “We have made our ‘red lines’ very clear: we have clearly expressed where there can be flexibility and where there can be no compromise, but they chose not to accept.”
Pence stated, “We have put the final, best offer on the negotiation table, but unfortunately, we did not reach an agreement. I think this is bad news for Iran, but not for the United States.”
The Vice President also quoted Trump saying, “You (Iran) must come here with sincerity and make every effort to reach an agreement.”
President Trump, in an interview with Fox News on Sunday, said he had informed the US negotiating team that Iran must meet all these demands, stating, “I don’t want 90%, I don’t want 95%, I want them to meet all the requirements.”
The President also emphasized that Iran does not want to give up its nuclear ambitions in the negotiations, while the US will never allow Iran to possess nuclear weapons.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian Parliament leading the Iranian negotiation team, accused the US of not gaining Iran’s trust during the negotiations.
Member of the Iranian delegation Mahmoud Nabavian told Fars News, a news agency affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, that the US did not come to Pakistan this time to reach an agreement with Iran.
(Partial reference to CNN’s report.)