Deadlock on Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear stockpile led to impasse, officials say | CNN Politics

Entering this weekend’s high-stakes talks with Iran in Pakistan, US officials identified a number of key areas where they would need to see progress to declare success. After hours of talks stretching into the early morning Sunday, US and Iranian negotiating teams had reached an impasse on several of those critical points, according to people familiar with the discussions. For the US, Tehran’s refusal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium were nonstarters. Without those issues resolved, Iran’s demands that the US lift sanctions and unfreeze billions of dollars in frozen assets also met a dead end, causing both sides to declare the marathon talks a bust. “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,” Vice President JD Vance said before leaving the luxury hotel where he’d spent the last 18 hours, returning to his airplane and flying home. He did not say what would happen next, and US officials said they would wait to see what President Donald Trump signals about the future of the war now that negotiations appear s