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Vice President Vance Gives Update on Iran-U.S. Talks; Vance: No Agreement Made With Iran; VANCE: Iran Did Not Agree to Terms About Its Nuclear Efforts. Aired 9p-10p ET
Aired April 11, 2026 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[21:00:40]
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: And good evening to you. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York. We are following some breaking news out of Islamabad, Pakistan. That's where delegations from the U.S. and Iran. They have been holding marathon negotiations now on how to potentially end this war.
Vice President J.D. Vance, we're told, is potentially about to speak any moment now. Of course, the Vice President leading the U.S. delegation in those talks that began hours ago. I'll continue to get those updates from the White House and also from the Iranians. But you see here the Vice President arriving to these crucial what have been described as make-or-break talks when it comes to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, specifically the war with Iran, as a U.S. delegation meeting with their Iranian counterparts there hosted by the Pakistanis as they try to find some common ground. Deep distrust issues certainly going into this with a high level of skepticism about what, if anything, could come out of these talks, potentially at least a framework with the future of the Middle East certainly on the line here and for global markets around the world as well.
I believe we do. We may have CNN's Nic Robertson, who has been following these talks already for hours in Islamabad, to give us an update on what's happening there. I'm told we're going to get to him in just a few moments as we try to establish contact. But again, this comes after just hours of talks that have been ongoing with earlier today Iran's semi-official news agency pointing out what it described as, quote, "excessive demands by the United States, that state media saying considering the U.S.'s excessive demands, it seems that this is the Iranian team's last chance to reach a common framework in this round of talks. That could potentially mean some insurmountable differences between the two.
I want you to listen in now on some of the latest remarks from the commander-in-chief, from President Trump, again, be the one to ultimately make the final decision while his son-in-law and his Vice President continue with those talks. Here's what the president said recently.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We win, no matter what. We've defeated their military. They have no navy. 158 ships are underwater, undersea. All of their minesweepers and all of their -- they call them mine droppers. Can you imagine? A country has 28 mine droppers. You think that's nice? With all of that being said, they're all defeated, by the way. They're all at the bottom of the sea.
Now, with all of that, they have no Navy. They have no radar. They have no Air Force. Their leaders are all dead. Khamenei is gone. For many years he ruled, he's gone. With all of that, let's see what happens. But from my standpoint, I don't care.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: And again, these are those live pictures where at the location of these ongoing talks in Islamabad, Pakistan, we're told the Vice President J.D. Vance, is expected any moment now to at least update reporters there on the ground with exactly where those talks currently are.
Some additional reporting that we've received from our colleagues there recently with Sophia Saifi in Islamabad reporting that reporters there are essentially being beginning to fade under those bright lights, which really gives you a sense of just how long these talks have been going without any potential end right now at the convention center as they continue to wait for any potential nugget of information. And that really underscores the importance of what we could potentially see any moment now when these doors open and, as we expect, J.D. Vance, the Vice President of the United States, to bring us an update on the situation.
For now, though, let's head over to CNN's Nic Robertson, who, again, has been following these talks on the ground for hours, just to give us a sense of where things are and what we've heard from these delegations.
Nic, if you can hear us, we can hear you.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, it's really -- and I'm speaking quietly because we just expect the Vice President to step into this small press room in just a couple of minutes. It's really been talks that have been shrouded in a huge amount of secrecy. We're looking at over 16 hours of talks. It was daylight. It went sundown through the night and the sun is already up here in Islamabad. So that gives you an idea of just how long this has been going on.
But in terms of details coming out of these talks, really, we've only had a sense of the duration.
[21:05:01]
Of course, Iranian state media has been putting out a variety of lines, but it does appear as if one of the sticking points has been around the issue of the Strait of Hormuz. But precisely, what the details of that difficulty, if that is the difficulty, that really isn't clear. But this has been an absolutely marathon session of talks, beginning with the Vice President meeting with Pakistan's Prime Minister, then going into sort of indirect talks and then very quickly transitioning into trilateral talks in a room with the Iranian delegation, U.S. delegation, and Pakistan mediators, all in the room. There appeared to have been perhaps breaks where technical papers were written, where talks went into technicalities.
But at the moment, we really do not understand what has been agreed. We know that going into these talks. The Iranian side said that they were coming in with a 10-point plan. And Pakistani officials were indicating that they were hoping to get a bridge and get agreement on five six or seven of those particular points. But it's not clear at all at this time what may or may not have been agreed.
SANDOVAL: Nic, as we wait for the Vice President to emerge here with an update, and forgive me, we have to interrupt you when that happens, can you just remind viewers how Lebanon ties into all of this, specifically what the Iranians wanted to potentially see out of any framework when it comes to Israel targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon?
ROBERTSON: Yeah. The Iranians said that they wanted a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, their proxy in Lebanon, as part of the broader ceasefire that Iran has agreed to over this sort of two-week period with the United States and Israel, that it wanted Lebanon brought into that. That was something that was resisted by the Israeli Prime Minister. He did appear to agree to sort of back off on some of the strikes against the Hezbollah targets inside of Lebanon.
But the Iranians said that that was a fundamental part of their understanding of getting into the ceasefire. The Pakistan's Prime Minister at the early phase of this said that that was his understanding as well. That was a position Pakistani diplomats were taking. But it's very clear from both the Vice President and the President that that was not their understanding. That was not the understanding that they had given to Iran. And that was a strong position Iran was coming into these talks with.
However, the Vice President said that he was positive coming here and that he believed any misunderstandings could be overcome. And it does seem that from an Iranian perspective, just before the talks began, state media there was saying that they saw a diminution, a reduction in the number of strikes by Israel into Lebanon. And that they said that gave them the confidence to come into the talks.
Of course, one of the other things that the Iranians said in the sort of 24 hours leading into the talks that they wanted, they wanted assets unfrozen. And it does appear that the Vice President is about to arrive. So I've got my eye on that door. And as soon as you see it open on camera and as soon as I see it open, I will go quiet here. But that was something that the Iranians were saying. They wanted to see these assets, with billions of dollars worth of assets that were frozen. They wanted those unfrozen.
There were indications from Iranian media today that they had got those unfrozen. And we understood from the Vice President's office that that was from the White House, at least that that was not the case. So all -- there are a lot of outstanding questions. There's a question about that we understood from CENTCOM today about demining vessels moving into the Strait of Hormuz. And we've later in the day heard from Iranian state media saying that there can be no movement of military vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.
So there's been a lot of, you might call it, spin or propaganda from the Iranian side setting out their position. But watching their narrative through the day, it does appear that the Iranians have sort of been explaining to their public why they've remained engaged in the talks, because they say they're looking at their national interests, that the -- that this is the right thing to do, that they're moving in the right direction.
So from sort of what seemed like a very hardline position on certain issues, just barely 24 hours ago, the Iranians do seem to have sort of explained away why they've moved into the talks and why they're taking certain positions. But they have been and kept up a very sort of firm line on the Strait of Hormuz, at one point claiming that they told the Pakistani interlocutors here that if a U.S. frigate moved into the Strait of Hormuz, then they would target it.
[21:10:08]
Again, this isn't something that we've been able to stand up and verify. This is just something that the Iranians are claiming. Perhaps we may get some insight from the Vice President now. But these -- I mean, I think, it's hard to underestimate or overestimate, if you will, just how hard and tough negotiations like this are. 16 hours of talks. This is the highest-level meeting between U.S. and Iranian officials in almost half a century since the Iranian Revolution, when the ayatollahs took power back in 1979.
So this is a meeting of huge consequence and, of course, huge interest for the world. What happens, what has been agreed around the table or not agreed, is going to have an immediate effect on the geopolitics of the region, but most fundamentally on the economy, the cost of gas at the pump in the United States and around the world. As we've already seen in some countries, even in Europe, there's been levels of social unrest because of shortages of gas, the cost of gasoline for vehicles.
So I think this is sort of why you have this sense coming into this moment after so many hours of discussions, the details of what has been agreed and not agreed. And I think we need to stress here what may well have been not agreed is very important.
When you look at talks like this, historical talks like this that try to end wars, oftentimes, they are incredibly fraught. There's a lot of going backwards and forwards, toing and froing. But I think it's indicative that the two sides sat at the table here for 16 hours and continued their talks all the way through the night is indicative that both sides kind of wanted to push through, that they thought they were making gains, that they thought they could reach a target point.
The fact that the press conference here has been stood by, the cameras set up, the microphones tested, everyone looking at the door waiting for the vice president to walk through and still waiting and looking at the door for him to walk through is also indicative of the potential for some kind of last-minute, you know, backwards and forwards working out of details, trying to hammer down and tie down final points. And undoubtedly, one could imagine that the Vice President will want to brief the President before he speaks to journalists. So we're really in those final moments before hearing the outcome, the product of these talks, six weeks of war where there has been damage to oil infrastructure, where ships in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz have been sunk.
There are more than 400, over 500 ships waiting in the Gulf, waiting to get out through the Strait of Hormuz to bring their gas and oil to global markets. We're still just keeping an eye on that door there waiting to see if the Vice President comes.
Everything that is needed to sort of keep the global economy on an even keel is bottled up in the Gulf, bottled up because it can't get out through that narrow Strait of Hormuz. And the details of if that can be overcome is something that we understand has been a point of contention, something that was not able to be agreed upon for many, many hours. It's not even clear to us right now if it has been agreed upon.
I think if you look at what Iranian state media is saying and the way that this is sort of -- these talks have been sort of briefed to the Iranian people that you get a sense there that the Iranian side is sort of come back from some of its tougher positions and given reasons for its negotiations.
So I think from that, we can potentially infer that on some of the points that they wanted, there has been some common ground found. But we really do not have the detail on the core issue, which is the trade-off on this right now.
SANDOVAL: Yeah. Nic, I'll give you a moment just to assess the situation there as you and I wait for those doors to open as we wait to hear from the American delegation led by Vice President J.D. Vance. But just underscoring those crucial points that you make and the importance of those talks right now, I should add, direct talks that have been going on for 16 hours, as you pointed out, Nic, with the lives also of millions of people across the Middle East hinging, as well as the global economy, as you point out, hinging on what's happening there.
[21:15:04]
Nic, we'll come back to you in a moment. But first, I wonder if we can head back to the United States and go to Julia Benbrook in Miami.
Julia, you've been in contact with the White House, as you and I wait together. And again, apologies if we have to interrupt you if those doors open. But has President Trump perhaps hinted at any possible either positive or negative outcome of these crucial talks?
JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, a lot of the big announcements that we get from President Donald Trump throughout this entire conflict, including when he announced the beginning of Operation Epic Fury, those first joint U.S.-Israel strikes have come on social media, on his Truth Social site. So of course, we are keeping a close eye on that, refreshing often.
But right now, the reason he's here in Florida, he is at the UFC fights with members of his family. That's where he is while this is taking place. He sent this delegation, though, led by Vice President J.D. Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner to Islamabad for these talks. And we know these have been going on for hours, the trilateral talks taking place over 12 hours, with Pakistan, of course, serving as a mediator there.
But as these have been going on, this is a huge moment, as Vice President J.D. Vance is going to walk through those doors soon and be at the front of this conversation with whatever announcement this will be.
We did hear from Trump as he left the White House today. And he said yes, he was receiving talks as these -- receiving updates as these talks had gone on and on. And while he was -- he didn't really categorize how he felt about what he was hearing, but really said that it didn't really matter because he believes that the United States has already won. And I do believe that we have some of those remarks to play for you now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We win no matter what. We've defeated their military. They have no navy. 158 ships are underwater, undersea. All of their minesweepers and all of their -- they call them mine droppers. Can you imagine a country has 28 mine droppers? You think that's nice? With all of that being said, they're all defeated, by the way. They're all at the bottom of the sea.
Now, with all of that, they have no navy. They have no radar. They have no air force. Their leaders are all dead. Khamenei is gone. For many years, he ruled. He's gone. With all of that, let's see what happens. But from my standpoint, I don't care.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BENBROOK: So you hear him say there, from his standpoint, he doesn't care how these talks go.
Going into this, Vance had said that he did believe that this could be a positive step. He also said that Trump gave him and others on the negotiating team clear guidelines going into this.
A lot of questions, though, as we await these remarks, is there common ground here between these two parties? Because when Trump announced the two-week ceasefire was going to take place, he said that the 10- point plan that the Iranians had sent was a workable basis on which to negotiate.
But as more pieces of what was going to be in that potential plan became public, it was clear that there were a lot of things the United States the United States would just not agree to, including reparations for war damages, as well as acknowledging control of the Strait of Hormuz. And that no doubt has been a big topic during these discussions today. That's the critical waterway where 20% of the world's oil typically passes through. And that was a key demand for Trump to have this ceasefire in place at all.
SANDOVAL: Julia Benbrook, do come back to us if you hear anything from the commander in chief.
BENBROOK: To get that (CROSSTALK) I'm inside. Yeah.
SANDOVAL: Correct, correct. No, that's also important to point out. Julia, do come back to us if we hear from the President, if he hints. As you point out, he tends to really get ahead of things and post -- make those crucial announcements on social media before we hear from authorities. So Julia, stand by for us.
I do want to go now to CNN's Jennifer Hansler, who's joining me on the phone.
As we wait together, Jennifer, just tell us a little bit about, remind us that really the nature of the delegation, the U.S. delegation that traveled to Pakistan to meet with the Iranians. The President appointing his Vice President J.D. Vance whose usual political position has been to not get the U.S. involved in any further foreign entanglements. Yet, he is leading the delegation this time.
JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, that's right, Polo. And it's very interesting because we had heard from sources this was actually a preference of the Iranians as well because of that very nature of not wanting to get involved in foreign interventions. They saw him as perhaps a more negotiable mediator than those they had dealt with in the past.
At the same time, we have seen those two players who have been at the table in every single round of talks that predate this war. That is Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, as well as the Deputy National Security Adviser Andy Baker.
[21:20:01]
Someone we didn't see at the table in Islamabad is Secretary of State Marco Rubio. However, we just got some interesting color from the White House pool. Rubio is with the President in Miami right now for that UFC fight. And they said that Rubio was leaning in and whispering very closely with the President in the past several minutes, likely on this. We don't know for sure, but that would of course make a lot of sense in this case.
And of course, as everyone has been saying here, whether or not they get to an agreement at that stage, that is just the first step in all of this. There is then the implementation of any deal that is reached here that is going to be the next challenge here.
And in addition to the Strait of Hormuz, of course, another major obstacle here is Lebanon. The Iranians and the Pakistanis had indicated that Lebanon was part of this ceasefire. President Trump and the Israelis said no, they were not part of this ceasefire. And this is a point of contention between the two sides. The U.S. is supposed to broker talks next week at the State Department
between the Israelis and the Lebanese. That would be direct talks between the two sides as Israel has continued its military assault against Lebanon, saying they are targeting Hezbollah there. There have been a number of civilian targets that have been hit over the past several days since this ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran went into place. So that also poses to become a spoiler in this situation.
But we're all watching for this press conference from Vice President Vance in the coming minutes. This will be the first fulsome statement we have heard from the U.S. since the start of these negotiations more than 12 hours ago.
SANDOVAL: Jennifer Hansler joining us on the phone with all that important context about the delegation that is on the ground now and has been speaking directly to the Iranians for hours. Thank you for that, Jennifer.
I want to go to Aaron David Miller now, former State Department Middle East negotiator. You have some important context here, some important insight here, given your background. What do you make of how long these talks have been going and all the points that my colleagues have been making in the last 30 minutes or so?
AARON DAVID MILLER, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT MIDDLE EAST NEGOTIATOR: You know, Arab-Israeli, U.S.-Iranian negotiations tend to have only two speeds, right, low and slower.
But what is so remarkable against the backdrop of six weeks of extraordinary conflict in which the world's most formidable military power and the region's most formidable military power, the U.S. and Israel, conducted a comprehensive series of strikes against all kinds of targets in Iran. It's almost as if the switch has been flipped in an extraordinary moment of 15 hours of negotiations.
Now, how much -- how many of those hours were direct, indirect, trilateral? But to last 15 hours, you'd have to draw one of two conclusions. Either the talks were on the verge of cratering and the Iranian, Pakistani, and U.S. sides want to do everything possible to save them. Or alternatively, I mean, I'd like to think so, you actually had some congruence, some meeting of common ground, and perhaps even, I'm speculating here, an exchange of texts, actual drafting of what could provide the outlines of an agreement. I mean, we'll know soon enough.
But I have to say, it's extraordinary given the complexity of the issues, highly enriched uranium, what to do about Iran's putative nuclear aspirations, Straits of Hormuz, sanctions, unfreezing Iranian frozen assets, any number of other issues that in fact you may actually have had a first session that will generate additional negotiations and perhaps find a pathway out of this conflict.
SANDOVAL: Yeah. Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson saying that these intensive negotiations between both countries have continued uninterrupted until the early hours in Islamabad. We should point out it's currently 6:23 a.m. there. And that the Strait of Hormuz and to Iran's nuclear program are certainly issues that are being discussed.
David, what is the kind of pressure that the U.S. is up against, especially the economic pressures, even before they landed in Pakistan yesterday?
MILLER: You know, I think time is a critical arbiter in any negotiation, right? The real question -- a negotiation succeeds when the negotiators on each side have a mutual sense of urgency. That is to say, there's enough pain for each of them to want to get to the negotiating table, and then the prospects of gain to actually reach an agreement. I would think, and I may have to revise my own analysis here, that the Iranian clock was moving at a much slower rate than the American clock.
[21:25:07]
I think that President Trump wants to find a way out of this. He's focused on the Straits for cessation of violence. The Iranians are going to -- or cessation of the military campaign. The Iranians are going to demand more than that since they've weaponized geography and they now have done something, which was basically unprecedented. They sought to control and manage and actually create a regime of preferential access of who or what gets through one of the most critically important choke points on the planet.
I would think that time favors the Iranians on this, that they would be prepared to return to conflict if they didn't get what they wanted. And the President was under greater pressure to produce, it seems to me, an agreement. I still think the clock favors the Iranians.
But hopefully we'll know in a matter of minutes or not whether or not we're on the verge of something that could be considered real traction and would span out over the next several weeks. The longer these negotiations go on, it seems to me, the harder it's going to be on the American side to return to the kind of war we saw waged beginning on February 28th.
But the Iranian -- President Trump wants out of this. But the Iranians, I don't think, are going to allow him to do it on the cheap. They're going to want things. They want to turn this negotiation not just into ending the war, they want to improve their political and economic position for the post-conflict period that lies ahead.
So again, are they synced in terms of time? Probably not. I'm hoping, however, that enough was accomplished that you're going to end up with additional negotiating sessions in the days ahead.
SANDOVAL: Of course, a party in this conflict, the Israeli government, we know that Bibi Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, not there on the ground as part of these negotiations. Obviously, he's watching very closely, especially when it comes to the issue of the current offensive, the Israeli offensive in southern Lebanon.
How do you see that playing out or how do you think that likely played out during the last several hours of these talks? MILLER: I mean, clearly it was an Iranian demand, which they never
pushed forward. They wanted a de-escalation or cessation of Israeli military activities in Lebanon as a condition. They also wanted the U.S. to unfreeze Iranian assets. Neither of those conditions were met, and yet the Iranians agreed to come to negotiate.
Look, on Lebanon, I think the Iranians will push for a de-escalation and cessation of Israeli military activities. And if the President of the United States believes that there really is traction here and that you could actually get an agreement and the Iranian condition is that the war in Lebanon, at least Israeli military activities, come to an end, I think President Trump is going to pick up the phone and he's going to call his good friend, Benjamin Netanyahu. And he's going to leave him without much of a choice, frankly, to comply, because overriding all of this is the reality for this Israeli Prime Minister that elections, if the government goes to term in October or if elections are advanced earlier and they may be, he needs President Trump as an active campaigner. He's vulnerable at home, perhaps in the wake of a campaign that did not lead to regime change. His position will not improve. But he needs Trump to continue to push for a pardon to say that without Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel would not exist, to demonstrate exactly how close the U.S.-Israeli partnership is. And that gives the president of the United States enormous leverage. If he tells Benjamin Netanyahu stop, the Prime Minister is going to stop.
SANDOVAL: Yeah. You're just the latest of multiple experts out of the region that have told me that, that that's likely how that would play out when it comes to the separate and ongoing conflict that's happening there. Again, at any moment now, just to remind our viewers, currently speaking to Aaron David Miller, former State Department Middle East negotiator. Together, we are watching these live pictures out of Islamabad, Pakistan, where it is currently 6:29 a.m. And we are told our current guidance is that any moment now that these doors will open and the U.S. delegation commission led by Vice President J.D. Vance will offer an update. This will be the first concrete official update that we get on these talks that initiated hours ago, these talks that have been, again, you heard at the top of the hour, mentioned multiple hours that these have been going anywhere from 11 to 16 hours.
[21:30:05]
And as Aaron David Miller just points out, it's unclear exactly if these were direct, indirect, or a mixture of both. And also important to point out that it could go anywhere.
Let's go back again to Aaron David Miller just to lay out the different potential outcomes. And again, apologies if I have to interrupt you if those doors open. But it's quite possible that we hear from the Vice President saying that the talks are ongoing and nothing more.
MILLER: Yeah. Look, I think you'll get a mood vibe out of this. I'd be stunned if the Vice President came out and shared details. I mean, for any number of reasons, he's not going to negotiate in public, particularly if there's something to preserve. And that's going to be tricky, I think, in the days ahead.
It is fascinating to me, though, that this is the highest level contact between the United States and Iran since, I believe, Secretary of State Kerry negotiated with Javad Zarif, the Iranian lead negotiator and foreign minister, to produce the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Iran nuclear agreement. Again, it's extraordinary.
Given the numbers of Iranian security officials that the Israelis and the Americans have killed, particularly the Israelis, you now have a situation where you have a very senior level. It's not just Mohammad- Bagher Ghalibaf and Araghchi, the Foreign Minister. You've got the former head of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council. You've got the head of the central bank. Iranians brought a team reflecting security, economics, politics, and they're all gathered in one place. That would have been absolutely impossible during the course of the last six 6 weeks. And it shows just how rapidly and how dramatically things could turn.
And again, I don't -- you know, no one ever lost money betting against Middle East negotiations, so I don't want to get ahead of myself here. But again, 15 hours of negotiations suggest to me either that they're working really hard to avoid an impasse, to avoid a crater, cratering of these negotiations, or in fact, possibly they actually produce some sort of foundation and basis on which to continue.
SANDOVAL: Also, the size of the delegation from Iran. We were talking about this just a little over 24 hours ago. Actually, Aaron David Miller, stand by for me as we see now the Vice President emerge. We want to take you live now to Islamabad for an update from the U.S. delegation led by the Vice President.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, good morning, everybody. And let me say a couple of notes of appreciation. First of all, to the Prime Minister of Pakistan and to Field Marshal Munir, who were both incredible hosts. And whatever shortcomings in 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.
We have been at it now for 21 hours. And we've had a number of substantive discussions with the Iranians. That's the good news. 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. So we go back to the United States having not come to an agreement.
We've made very clear what our red lines are, what things we're willing to accommodate them on and what things we're not willing to accommodate them on. And we've made that as clear as we possibly could. And they have chosen not to accept our terms.
Questions?
ROBERTSON: Sir, Nic Robertson from CNN. Precisely, what have they rejected here? Can you help us understand it a little bit?
VANCE: Well, I won't go into all the details because I don't want to negotiate in public after we negotiated for 21 hours in private. But the simple fact is that 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.
Again, their nuclear program, such as it is, the enrichment facilities that they've -- that they had before, they've been destroyed. But the simple question is, do we see a fundamental commitment of will for the Iranians not to develop a nuclear weapon, not just now, not just two years from now, but for the long term. We haven't seen that yet. We hope that we will.
Jen [ph]?
WOMAN 1: Was there a framework on anything? And also, did the Iranian frozen assets come up? And did you reach any conclusions on those frozen assets?
VANCE: We talked about all those issues, Jen [ph]. And we talked about a number of issues beyond that. And so certainly, those things came up. But again, we just could not get to a situation where the Iranians were willing to accept our terms.
[21:35:03]
I think that we were quite flexible. We were quite accommodating. 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.
Preston [ph]?
MAN 1: Mr. Vice President, how often did you communicate with President Trump throughout the negotiations? There are reports that there were multiple rounds where there were breaks in between negotiations. How often did you communicate with the President throughout those rounds? And what was he saying as you were going through these negotiations that you said fell short?
VANCE: Yeah, Obviously, we were talking to the president consistently. I don't know how many times we talked to him, a half dozen times, a dozen times over the past 21 hours. We obviously also talked to Admiral Cooper, to Pete, to Marco, to the entire national security team. We talked to Scott Bessent a number of times.
So look, we were constantly in communication with the team because we were negotiating in good faith. And we leave here and we leave here with a very simple proposal, a method of understanding that is our final and best offer. We'll see if the Iranians accept it.
MAN 2: Mr. Vice President, where does this leave the Strait of Hormuz?
WOMAN 2: Did you go back to Prime Minister Netanyahu at all today?
WOMAN 3: What about the Strait of Hormuz?
(END VIDEO TAPE)
SANDOVAL: All right. That update that just -- all right. and that marks the conclusion now of those remarks that came from the Vice President, J.D. Vance, offering that update.
The headline, they have not chosen to accept our terms, referring to the Iranian delegation that met there for a total of 21 hours of talks, according to the Vice President, with that simple proposal that has been put there on the table.
Let's go to Nic Robertson, now, who's live there in Islamabad. Nic, I heard you pressing the vice president, trying to expand on where those sticking points are. Tell us more about what he said.
ROBERTSON: Okay. One of the takeaways here is also what was not said. And the Vice President did sort of get this question at the end, which is essentially, what next? Is it a return to war? And he said, we've given them the final and best offer. So it does appear as if the ball is now in the Iranian court, something that their top negotiating team, and we understand that a very big delegation here, could not, amongst themselves, put an adequate answer to.
It is clear that if there are going to be more talks and if they're going to be entered into in a productive way, Iran will have to have changed its position somehow. But I think the details that we have here are enough for us to understand that a question mark, a fundamental question mark now stands, how long does Iran have to come back with its next answer to the final and best offer from the United States? How long do they have to make that decision? And what are the consequences if they don't?
Remember, going into this, going into these, into this ceasefire, it was just three hours away from what the president had described as a civilizational annihilation. He was talking about a massive round of attacks on the Iranian infrastructure, bridges, power plants, rail networks. All these sorts of potential targets were quite literally on the table, and as we understood it, dialed into the munitions that were ready to be delivered onto those targets.
So what -- when does that come into play again? Does it come into play? We're again, I think, left with a lot of questions. But I think there have been a real hope overnight tonight that the fact that the talks had gone so long, the fact that they had tried to push so many hours into the early hours this morning to get a successful resolution really had sort of built a sense of hope that maybe this was a job that was being done, just taking time.
But I think what we've witnessed here tonight is the fundamental gaps and differences between the Iranian side. And of course, we know that they fundamentally believe that they still have a military capacity, a quantity of drones, a quantity of ballistic missiles, the ability to hit fundamental and key targets as they did on Wednesday after the ceasefire deadline, such as the East-West pipeline Saudi Arabia, a very important pipeline. Iran was demonstrating that it felt it had the ability to come back into the battle should it restart and inflict pain not only potentially on U.S.-associated shipping, but on the United States' Gulf allies and partners.
[21:40:01]
So this is a real -- this is -- I think it would be too much to describe it at this moment as a setback because as far as we know, we're still in a ceasefire. But it is a fundamental blow to that aspiration that an off-ramp, an adequate off-ramp, could be put into play and the oil, the natural gas, all those tankers that are stuck in the Gulf at the moment could exit the Strait of Hormuz. All that still seems to be in effect in suspended animation.
Of course, we may learn more details about this from the Iranian side, how they interpret it. But we do know that Iranian state media just over the past few hours have been talking about the extreme pressure that they were being put on by the United States delegation.
I think it's also worth bearing in mind that Iran typically negotiates over the long-term. The two sides came into this with fundamentally different positions. The Vice President really felt that he could sort of make a judgment relatively quickly that he appeared to want to try to do things quickly.
And the Iranians' way of negotiating is a fundamentally much slower process. And that does appear to what to be part of what we've witnessed, not just a difference in what both sides wanted, but a difference in the way they set about trying to achieve it.
SANDOVAL: And when it comes to some of those differences, the Vice President telling you, Nic, that there's a lack of an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon or tools to achieve a nuclear weapon, referring to their uranium stockpile. Nick Paton Walsh again asking those questions to the Vice President as we received that last update, Nic Robertson.
Again, Nic Robertson, thank you so much for being there asking those questions to the Vice President to try to get more clarity on the situation there on the ground. We'll let you go so you can continue to gather news.
I'm wondering if we can now go to Aaron David Miller. Again, he's a former State Department Middle East negotiator, so has unique insight into these kinds of talks, 21 hours, as the Vice President points out. But perhaps one of the most critical questions left unanswered, the ceasefire. What next?
MILLER: You know, we talked about two different clocks, the Iranian clock running slower and the President's clock running much faster. And I think that reflects the perception, whether it's accurate or not, on the part of the Iranians, that in fact, they hold more cards than the Americans.
They are clearly in no hurry to make concessions there. It seems to me they still have the highly enriched uranium. They demonstrated, they've weaponized geography. They control and now manage the Straits of Hormuz. The regime has survived. It's cohered. The instruments of state repression are still intact. And they've demonstrated a terrifying capacity to undermine Gulf security and stability. All of these things represent cards.
And I think that they would prefer as, as difficult as that decision may be, rationally, to risk going back to a continuation of American and Israeli military strikes, military campaign, rather than retreat from negotiation without gaining things.
And it is interesting that the Vice President referred to only one issue, which was a lack of will on the part of Iran to basically convince the United States that they weren't interested in developing a nuclear weapon. There wasn't a mention of the Straits of Hormuz, which seemed to be a sticking point and critically important to resolving if you're going to get even a narrow agreement between the sides.
I mean, I have to say about negotiations, though, I mean, 21 hours, it's a long time. It's almost 24 hours. But in these negotiations, the expectation somehow that the Americans would come and in a day would basically resolve or even create enough of a resolution on these critically complicated and difficult issues is frankly completely unrealistic. It may be the Vice President sensed that conceptually, the two sides are so far apart that no additional negotiations will bridge them.
But again, 21 hours, it's a lot, but it doesn't even come close, it seems to me. If you are actually, you know, having two sides negotiating in good faith and trying to achieve a balance of interests, that is to say, each side walks away believing they've won, I'm not sure that's the -- either the Iranian or the American conception of how these negotiations are to turn out.
[21:45:16]
Trump wants to win. He wants out, but he wants to walk away with something. And the Iranians clearly, who have the cards, they want to walk away with a lot more.
SANDOVAL: Two things off of that. Yes, I did notice that as well, is focusing on the nuclear and on the stockpile and enriching the uranium, but no mention of the Strait of Hormuz, as you point out, no mention of the Iranian -- of the rights of the Iranian people that the President at the beginning of the year had been saying that he was basically looking out for, with help on the way, as he put out in his statement.
And then, secondly, you're right, I mean, 21 hours, as you point out, it is long time. But given the sheer weight and the magnitude of the current war, of the conflict, and with so many lives in the Middle East at stake, not to mention global economies, should they have continued to press forward or were they just insurmountable differences that they were not going to overcome? MILLER: Right. You know, I have a feeling that the report back to
Washington, to use one of the President's favorite expressions, is that we're being played by the Iranians.
You know, it is extraordinary to throw the Vice President into this, and the Iranians preferred him as a negotiator for any number of reasons, might have been a smart move on the part of the White House to deploy him. But you've now gone up the ladder. It's not as if you have technical experts working to narrow the gaps and then you're going to take what they've done to the decision makers who are basically going to make the final decisions.
I mean, the Vice President is a heartbeat away from the presidency. And you have to wonder, they were looking -- administration was looking for a win here and a deal.
And I imagine the final offer is on the table and the Iranians will mull it over. I just think that the Iranian clock is ticking a lot more slowly and sadly, for the civilians caught up in this conflict. And for any number of other parties who are suffering as a consequence of the dislocation caused by this war, fertilizer costs, helium, I mean, it's -- it looks pretty grim.
SANDOVAL: We've made clear what the red lines are for the U.S. Vice President. Thank you so much for that, as always, Aaron David Miller, for that live reaction and insight to what we just heard.
I'm wondering if we could go to Julia Benbrook in Miami, who is traveling with the President. My understanding is that the Vice President said that he has communications already established with the President.
Any indication, Julia, that we'll be hearing from President Trump?
BENBROOK: We still have not heard from President Donald Trump directly. We know that he is here in a social setting at the UFC fights. And according to reporters in the room, he has lots of family members there, but also Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
And from those notes that we're getting from the reporters that are there, we know that around this same time that Vice President J.D. Vance came out and made this announcement that there was no deal, that these talks had not been successful. We know that Rubio leaned over and he whispered something to the President. They described it as he had his hands up, couldn't read his lips, you couldn't tell what he was saying, but safe to assume this may have had something to do with this topic.
Now, prior to these talks, Vance had said that he believed that this could be positive, but that Trump had given them these guidelines going into this. They knew what they were looking for and ultimately they did not find it. And I want to play for you some of what Vance said today about where these sticking points were and what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) VANCE: We say a couple of notes of appreciation, first of all, to the Prime Minister of Pakistan and to Field Marshal Munir, who were both incredible hosts. And whatever shortcomings in 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.
We have been at it now for 21 hours. And we've had a number of substantive discussions with the Iranians. That's the good news. 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.
So we go back to the United States having not come to an agreement. We've made very clear what our red lines are, what things we're willing to accommodate them on and what things we're not willing to accommodate them on. And we've made that as clear as we possibly could and they have chosen not to accept our terms.
[21:50:03]
Questions?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BENBROOK: And so you hear Vance say there that this is much worse for them than it is for us. That echoes what we heard from Trump when he traveled out here to Florida today. As he left the White House, he answered some questions. And he ultimately said that it didn't really matter from his viewpoint how these talks went because he believed that the United States had already won militarily. He did not believe that these talks had to be successful to claim a win here.
Now, Vance, when he went into details on the red lines and exactly what the United States was looking for, I want to read for you part of what he said. He said, the simple fact is that 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. He said that they did not receive that. And that echoes something that we heard from Trump here just several weeks ago while I was in Florida. He gave his first press conference since the beginning of Operation Epic Fury, and in remarks to Republican lawmakers right before that press conference, he said, we've already won in many ways, but we haven't won enough.
And I was able to press him on that. What was enough? What was his baseline for ending this conflict? And he said that they had to be able to confirm that they were not going to pursue a nuclear weapon. They had to look at negotiators like Witkoff, who was in the room. Of course, he's there in Islamabad as well, playing a key role here. But they had to be able to look at people like him and confirm that they weren't going to take steps toward it.
SANDOVAL: Julia Benbrook, thank you so much for that. Do let us know if we hear from the President there in Florida where you are.
Let's go to- now, if we could go to David Sanger, who's also been closely following the situation. He's a CNN political and national security analyst and also a reporter for The New York Times.
David, it's good to see you. You and I have spoken multiple times leading up to these talks. Let me just start by getting your initial reaction to this. What awaits the Vice President when he returns to the United States?
DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL & NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, first of all, no surprise here, Polo. The 2015 agreement took about two years to negotiate. It took nearly 70 trips back and forth to Europe for negotiating sessions with the Obama administration. And in the end, what did they get? They got a commitment never to build a nuclear weapon, a commitment Iran's made many times before because it's also a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. So it has to make that commitment. So that part of the Vice President's statement seemed a little confusing. They have already agreed on that issue, whether they are enforcing that or not is another issue.
And then the second part that was really fascinating was he said they will not give up the ability, the tools, to be able to build a weapon in the future. And that is code word for they won't give up the stockpile of nuclear fuel and/or the right to enrich uranium in the future, the right to produce more in the future. And so it looks like that old sticking point, which led to the breakdown of the negotiations in February that led to the war, is still the sticking point.
SANDOVAL: Don't go anywhere, David Sanger. I'm wondering if we can now bring in Jennifer Hansler, CNN's Senior Reporter, just for some additional reporting. What are you hearing about, you know, after hearing from the Vice President and the lack of agreement between the Iranians and the United States?
HANSLER: Well, Polo, it's hard to underscore how many unanswered questions we have here in terms of what happens next. We heard from the Vice President saying that this is their best and final offer, but we haven't heard a timeline in which they would need the Iranians to respond.
We haven't heard, for example, if there'll be working-level negotiations that continue beyond this meeting in Islamabad. We also haven't heard questions on what happens next when it comes to the Strait of Hormuz. This is, of course, a key issue in all of these negotiations, as the Iranians have basically throttled the freedom of navigation through this critical waterway. This is something that Europe is heavily dependent on, ships being able to transit through this strait.
We don't know now if that continues to remain a demand, if there is still going to be a push to have this fully reopened in the coming weeks. We also don't know whether the ceasefire is going to continue to hold for these two weeks. This was what was announced, you know, when the President announced this last week, that it would be a two- week ceasefire. Now that these talks have ended without there being any sort resolution, will the U.S. continue its military operations here? We don't have answers on all of these in these early hours after the Vice President's remarks. [21:55:03]
He, you know, only gave very, very brief remarks there in Islamabad after this marathon day of negotiations. And so there are a lot of questions that I'm sure we're all going to our sources with right now so that I can try to get some clarity here. But there is a lot at stake coming out of these talks. And we have also yet to hear from the other parties to these negotiations, the Pakistanis as well as the Iranians. I'm sure Tehran will seek to spin this in their own way as well, whether or not they see eye to eye in terms of what is the major gap.
As David mentioned, this idea of enrichment and no nuclear weapons, this is something Iranian officials have publicly said they are not seeking a nuclear weapon. There have not been the ability to verify where they are in terms of enrichment after last year's strikes by U.S. and Israeli forces. The IAEA has not been able to get on the ground since the start of those offensives last year. So that would be key in any deal here. But there again, I cannot stress how many questions we are seeking to have answers here. Polo?
SANDOVAL: Jennifer Hansler, thank you so much. We'll let you get back to your sources and do check back with us with any new information.
Let's go back to David Sanger now and pick up on where we left off. David, the other thing that I took away from that, as the Vice President said, it's bad news to Iran more than for the United States. How do the people of Iran take this now with the President threatening to increase strikes if no deal was reached?
SANGER: Well, perhaps he will, Polo. But I actually think that with the ceasefire in place, it's going to be a difficult decision for the President to resume the kind of military action that the U.S. was engaged in until a few days ago.
Just think, we just saw inflation numbers tick up and it's probably going to get worse before it gets better. Going back into attacks on Iran would probably send the stock market down, would probably send the price of oil up, would probably promise that there will be significantly more gas price increases and increases in everything else and fertilizer shortages and shortages of helium to make semiconductors.
So I think it would be a difficult decision for the President. I think the Iranians know it. And I think the Iranian message, at least from the government here, was just because we got pounded for 38 days doesn't mean that we have fundamentally changed our view on our -- in the Iranian view, their right to produce uranium and do what other signatories of the Nonproliferation Treaty are allowed to do.
SANDOVAL: What do you read into the fact that we didn't hear the Vice President mention the Strait of Hormuz?
SANGER: Really interesting. I mean, first of all, the Strait of Hormuz opening was supposed to be a condition of the ceasefire.
SANDOVAL: Right.
SANGER: It was not even supposed to be a subject of negotiation here. The negotiation here might be, you heard the President float the idea that Iran and the U.S. might run the Strait and the tolling from it together, the Iranians obviously are making a claim that they control the state -- the Strait, and that their military will get involved in doing that. That has not happened during the 47 years of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.
So remember, though, that the Strait crisis was a result of the war. It was not one of the causes of the war. And so that's got to get negotiated almost separately as a way of defanging the Iranians' one big control over the global economy. And frankly, they've discovered in the past month that that's as valuable or more valuable than the prospect that they could get a nuclear weapon.
SANDOVAL: Yeah. After 21 hours of negotiations, they continue to hold that valuable negotiating chip. David, I have a couple of seconds left with you. Just curious, what's the lingering question that remains on your mind? And technically, do these negotiations remain open-ended?
SANGER: Well, that's the interesting question. I'm assuming that Vice President Vance gave some kind of deadline because the last thing the administration wants to do is get sucked into a lengthy negotiation here. But he mentioned no deadline during the course of this time. And the Iranians have to guess whether or not the President is willing to back that up.
Now, one thing the U.S. could do short of a resumed attack is cut off all traffic coming out of the Strait, basically saying if you're going to close it to --
