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Mediators from Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey will continue talks with the US and Iran in the coming days in an effort to narrow remaining gaps and reach an agreement to end the war, according to a US official.
Why this information matters: All sides still believe a deal is possible. Mediators hope that narrowing the gaps could allow for another round of negotiations before the ceasefire expires on April 21.
President Trump is considering resuming strikes if a U.S. naval blockade does not force Iran to change course, the sources said.
Targets could include infrastructure that he threatened to attack before the ceasefire was declared.
The blockade, like the US decision to withdraw from talks in Pakistan, is part of ongoing negotiations, a US official said.
The official claimed that Trump wants to prevent Iran from using the Strait of Hormuz as a leverage tool in negotiations.
"We are not in a complete deadlock. The door is not closed yet. Both sides are negotiating. It is like a bargain ," the regional source said.
A US official agreed, adding that a deal could be reached if Iran shows more flexibility and accepts that Islamabad's proposal is the best it will get.
Iran's ambassador to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghadam, who participated in the negotiations, wrote in X that the talks in Islamabad did not fail, but laid the foundation for a diplomatic process.
“If trust and will are strengthened, [we] can create a stable framework for the interests of all parties,” he said.
Behind the scenes: The main gaps during the 21-hour negotiations between the US and Iran in Pakistan focused on the nuclear issue, US officials and regional sources said.
One gap related to US demands that Iran freeze uranium enrichment and give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
Another related to the amount of frozen money that Iran is demanding the US release in exchange for nuclear concessions, the sources said.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed the parties were "a few steps away" from an agreement before the US "changed the terms of the game," a description that US officials and regional sources did not confirm, though they stressed that progress had been made.
On Sunday, the foreign ministers of Turkey and Egypt held separate phone calls with their Pakistani counterparts. The two then spoke with White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Araghchi, the sources said.
Vice President JD Vance, who led the US negotiating team, met with the Iranians for the first time in Islamabad.
A US official said the talks were “difficult” but turned into “a friendly and productive exchange of proposals.”
Despite a less than optimistic conclusion to the talks in Islamabad, Vance left the door open and hopes that Iran will return to the table.
"In the coming days, the Vice President hopes that they will reflect on the offer they received and understand that an agreement is in the interest of both parties," the US official said.
Vance called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from his plane after leaving Islamabad, Netanyahu said in his cabinet meeting on Monday.
“He reported to me in detail, as this administration does every day, on the progress of the negotiations,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu said the US broke off talks after concluding that Iran had violated the ceasefire agreement by not reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Vance told him that the main point of disagreement was the removal of all enriched material from Iran and ensuring that there is no enrichment “in the years to come, and that could be for decades,” Netanyahu said.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the naval blockade of Iran that Trump announced will begin on Monday at 10:00 a.m. ET and “will be applied impartially to vessels of all nations entering or exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas.”
CENTCOM added that the US “will not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports.”/ Adapted from “Pamphlet”, by “Axios”
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