The United States made “a lot of progress” in talks with Iran, US Vice President JD Vance said Monday, while adding that “the ball is in the Iranian court,” as mediators reportedly tried to get the two sides back to the table after Vance and the US team walked away from Saturday’s summit in Islamabad.
Vance, in an interview on Fox News, said that he left the talks in Pakistan last weekend because “the [Iranian] team that was there was unable to cut a deal and they had to go back to Tehran, either from the supreme leader or somebody else, and actually get approval for the terms that we had set.”
“The big question from here on out is whether the Iranians will have enough flexibility, whether the Iranians will accept the critical things that we need to see in order for things to get done,” Vance, who led the US delegation, said during the interview. “We must have the enriched material out of Iran. We must have their conclusive commitment to not develop a nuclear weapon.”
“If the Iranians are willing to meet us there, then this can be a very, very good deal for both countries,” the vice president said.
“Whether we have further conversations, whether we ultimately get to a deal, I really think the ball is in the Iranian court because we put a lot on the table,” he continued.
“We actually made very clear what our red lines were,” Vance said. “We also made really clear… we actually would be very happy… if Iran was treated like a normal country, if it had a normal economy, if its people were able to prosper and thrive. But in order for Iran to be a normal country economically, it’s going to have to be a normal country from the perspective of not pursuing a nuclear weapon, and it’s going to have to be a normal country from not pursuing terrorism.”
WATCH: “The ball really is in their court,” @VP JD Vance tells @BretBaier, stating that while the U.S. has defined its red lines for a “grand deal,” the Iranian delegation lacked the authority to finalize terms without approval from Tehran. pic.twitter.com/h0dpzDaP7O
— Special Report (@SpecialReport) April 13, 2026
“I really think there is a grand deal to be had here,” he said, “but it’s up to the Iranians, I think, to take the next step.”
Vance added that the US expects Iran to make progress on opening the Strait of Hormuz, warning that the negotiation would change if Tehran does not.
“We have the cards, we have the military advantage, we now have additional economic pressure that we’re applying on them through the blockade that we’ve imposed on their oil coming out of the Straits of Hormuz,” he said.
Mediators trying to bring sides back to table
Vance’s interview came as the mediating countries scrambled to get the US and Iran back to the negotiating table, with Pakistan proposing to host a second round of talks in the coming days, according to two officials from the South Asian country.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter with the press, said the proposal will depend on whether the parties request a different location. One official said that, despite ending without an agreement, the first talks were part of an ongoing diplomatic process rather than a one-off effort.
According to Channel 12, citing American and mediation sources, Pakistan and its fellow mediators Egypt and Turkey are working to bridge gaps between Tehran and Washington, in an effort to either reach a deal to end the war or extend the current ceasefire.
A senior US official told the Israeli news outlet that contacts between Washington and Tehran are still ongoing and that some progress has been made in recent talks.
According to the report, the US softened its position during negotiations, proposing that Iran freeze uranium enrichment for 20 years instead of halting it for good.
Iran, in turn, agreed in principle to a freeze, but only for a shorter period of time, less than 10 years, according to officials.
According to The New York Times, Iran actually only proposed a five-year freeze on enrichment and US President Donald Trump rejected the proposal.
The US-proposed 20-year pause would be accompanied by sanctions relief, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The US was also said to have demanded that Iran export its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, but Tehran rejected that, instead agreeing to dilute the material inside Iran under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran has previously ruled out restrictions on its right to enrich uranium in what it insists is a civilian nuclear program. It has, however, enriched uranium to a point not needed for any civilian use, and has been said to be weeks away from breaking out to a bomb.
Despite the lack of a final agreement, Iranian officials reportedly believed the sides were nearing a deal and were caught off guard when Vance announced the talks were being abandoned.
The Channel 12 report also noted that Turkey is pushing to extend the current two-week ceasefire by an additional 45 to 60 days to allow more time to reach an agreement, with officials stressing that compromise will be required from both sides on key issues.
According to two US officials and another source, discussions were still underway about a new round of talks, with a diplomat from one of the mediating countries going further to say Tehran and Washington have agreed to it.
It’s unclear if the same level of delegation would be expected to attend, the diplomat and US officials said.
Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, was once again being discussed as the hosting location, the officials said, adding that Geneva was a possibility, and that while the venue and timing had not been decided, the talks could happen as early as Thursday.
The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Trump told reporters Monday that “we’ve been called by the other side” and “they want to work a deal.”
Hormuz problems
Aside from the Iranian nuclear program, the other main topic on the table in talks between the US and Iran is the Strait of Hormuz, which emerged as possibly the central issue of the entire conflict when Iran shut the key waterway to maritime traffic after the US and Israel launched their massive bombing campaign on the Islamic Republic in late February.
The strait, which normally sees the transit of some 20 percent of the world’s gas and oil shipments, has been all but entirely closed for the past seven weeks, with Iran allowing limited traffic to bypass the main shipping lanes for exorbitant toll fees paid in cryptocurrency.
After the Sunday talks ended without a deal, Trump announced that he had ordered the US Navy to enforce a blockade of all Iranian ports, which the US military later confirmed was in effect as of Monday afternoon.
Despite the blockade, a Chinese tanker sanctioned by the US passed through the Strait of Hormuz later Monday, shipping data showed.
The ship, called the Rich Starry, was the first to make it through the strait and to exit the Gulf since the US blockade began, data from LSEG, MarineTraffic and Kpler showed.
The tanker and its owner Shanghai Xuanrun Shipping Co Ltd were previously sanctioned by the US for dealing with Iran. The company was not immediately reached for comment.
Rich Starry is a medium-range tanker that is carrying about 250,000 barrels of methanol on board, according to the data.
It loaded the cargo at its last port of call, the United Arab Emirates’ Hamriyah, the data showed. The Chinese-owned tanker has Chinese crew on board.
Another US-sanctioned tanker, Murlikishan, also headed into the strait on Tuesday, LSEG data showed. The empty handysize tanker is expected to load fuel oil at Iraq on April 16, Kpler data showed. The vessel, formerly known as MKA, has transported Russian and Iranian oil.
The US’s blockade has further clouded the outlook for global energy security and the supply of a vast array of goods that rely on petroleum, and has little, if any, international backing.
NATO allies including Britain and France said they would not be drawn into the conflict by taking part in the blockade, stressing instead the need to reopen the waterway.
The US and Israel launched a campaign against Iran on February 28 to degrade the regime’s military capabilities, distance threats posed by Iran — including its nuclear and ballistic missile programs — and “create the conditions” for the Iranian people to topple the regime, the military and other Israeli leaders have said.
Fighting stopped last week, when the US and Iran reached a two-week ceasefire, which Israel said it would also comply with. Jerusalem was not represented at talks held in Pakistan over the weekend that failed to resolve the conflict.
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