Nuclear Proliferation

ROBERT MAGINNIS: Why Islamabad talks were always doomed to fail

IRGC warned military vessels would meet a 'strong response' as US destroyers transited the strait during talks

By Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, (ret.) Fox News

Published April 12, 2026 11:49am EDT

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VP Vance: Iran has chosen 'not to accept our terms'

Vice President JD Vance says following 21 hours of negotiations, an agreement has not been reached with Iran.

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Clausewitz wrote that war is the continuation of policy by other means. The corollary—which Washington perpetually forgets—is that diplomacy without strategic clarity is just theater. This weekend in Islamabad, we got the theater.

Vice President JD Vance flew to Pakistan to lead the highest-level direct talks between the United States and Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He had warned Tehran before departing: "If they're going to try to play us, they're going to find the negotiating team is not that receptive." After 21 hours across multiple sessions, he boarded Air Force Two and flew home without an agreement, leaving behind what he called Washington's "final and best offer." Tehran has not accepted it.

Iran Did Not Come to Concede

Tehran's delegation—71 people, led by Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi—presented four non-negotiable conditions before the session even began: full Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, complete war reparations, unconditional release of frozen assets and a durable ceasefire across the entire West Asia region. Those are not opening bids. They are a declaration of intent. Iran's state media put the breakdown squarely on Washington's "excessive demands."

GEN JACK KEANE 'SKEPTICAL' THAT IRAN CEASEFIRE WILL HOLD, WARNS TEHRAN WILL 'DELAY AND OBFUSCATE'

Ghalibaf left no doubt about the atmosphere. "We have goodwill, but we do not trust," he told Iranian state media. The distrust is mutual: Tehran has not forgotten that President Donald Trump walked away from the 2015 nuclear deal, and Washington has watched Iran exploit diplomatic pauses for decades.

Vice President........

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