Talks held via indirect, direct channels

Islamabad: The Iran-US pea­ce talks were conducted first indirectly through Pakistan and later through direct negotiations between the two sides, sources said on Sunday.

Pakistan remained involv­ed at every stage of the process, with the talks beginning with separate meetings of the US and Iranian delegations with PM Shehbaz Sharif (R) on Saturday. This was followed by an exchange of messages through Pak interlocutors.

The Iranian delegation was led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqir Ghalib­af, while the US team was headed by Vice President JD Vance. They said the negotiations then moved to direct talks between the visiting delegations, which continued for two-and-a-half hours in the presence of Pak officials. Then, a one-hour break was taken and technical aspects of the demands were discussed at the expert level. The excha­nge of messages on technical aspects continued until late at night. By Sunday morning, it became clear the differences could not be bridged, leading US VP JD Vance to announce there was no deal.