The US-Iran ceasefire appears to be holding. What next?

A historic meeting, 21 hours of negotiations, and one “final” offer.

Yet, the high-level ‘Islamabad Talks’ between the United States and Iran ended inconclusively early Sunday morning. Although commentators and analysts say the dialogue was unlikely to end any other way, the heart wants what it wants, and the entire world sat on the edge of their seats, hoping for nothing short of a miracle.

After a day and an entire night of talks, US Vice President JD Vance finally addressed journalists at a press briefing at 6:30am, where he announced the “bad news”.

“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,” he said, elaborating that Iran had chosen “not to accept our terms”.

“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,” Vance added. Shortly after, he flew back to the US.

On the other hand, Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, also the leader of the Iranian delegation in Islamabad, said they raised “forward-looking” initiatives, but the US failed to win their trust during the negotiations.

“The US has understood Iran’s logic and ⁠principles, and it’s time ⁠for them to decide whether they can ⁠earn our trust or not,” ⁠he wrote in ‌a post on X.

In the US, President Donald Trump started his Sunday morning with a barrage of threats directed at Iran. “I could take out Iran in one day […] I could have their entire energy, everything, every one of their plants, their electric generating plants, which is a big deal,” he said, during a........

© Dawn Prism