“It was as if the two delegations in the Iran-US peace talks in Islamabad hoped that the sheer number of negotiators flown into Pakistan could overcome the handicap of having only a finite number of hours in which to settle a 20-year dispute over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, now overlaid by complex new issues such as future control of the strait of Hormuz and US compensation for its attack on Iran.”

“Iran sent two planeloads of negotiators.”

“One Iranian-drafted technical explanation on nuclear facility safety ran to more than 100 pages.”

“The US, often accused of leaving talks to the “noteless” special envoy Steve Witkoff, sent not just the vice-president, JD Vance, but nearly 300 other officials.”

“Vance spoke to Donald Trump at least a dozen times during the talks, and even once to Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, a conversation Araghchi was quick to claim led to a hardening of the US position.”

“Robert Malley, a veteran of nuclear talks with Iran under Joe Biden, noted pithily: “Twenty-one hours was 20 hours too many if the goal was to reiterate a demand Iran had already rejected. It was many hours too few if the goal was to negotiate.””

“Another US state department veteran, Aaron David Miller, noted if the administration believed that after only 21 hours of negotiations Iran would give up enrichment – which is what Vance implied – it totally misread the moment and the Iranian delegation.”

“The former Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif... was not the only Iranian to claim this sentence revealed an unchanging US take-it-or-leave-it arrogance. “No negotiations at least with Iran will succeed based on our/your terms,” he said. “The US must learn: you cannot dictate terms to Iran. It’s not too late to learn. Yet.””

“Israel’s energy minister, Eli Cohen, by contrast is claiming the lack of an agreement means it is possible to attack Iran.”

“Trump’s stated plan in the interim is to mount a blockade of the strait of Hormuz, trying to grab hold of Iran’s best negotiating card, to prevent Iranian oil being exported.”

“Prior to the talks, Iran buckled a little in that it did not secure the full ceasefire in Lebanon it had demanded, nor receive the release of its frozen assets, before meeting Vance.”

“Netanyahu has instead agreed to hold direct talks with Lebanon on Tuesday, for the first time in 30 years.”

“The Iranian aim was to draft a memorandum of understanding before finalising a peace agreement over a period lasting longer than two weeks, implying that the fortnight-long ceasefire would be extended.”

“The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei admitted the timeframe in Islamabad meant no outline agreement had been likely to be reached, and spoke of two or three issues that remained outstanding.”

“These issues are not technical but fundamental: Israel ending its offensive in Lebanon; a protocol for the future governance of shipping in the strait of Hormuz; and the future of Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile, including whether it would be sufficient for Iran to downblend the uranium under the tight supervision of the UN nuclear inspectorate inside Iran, or instead that it has to be exported to a third country such as Russia.”

“Under one interpretation enrichment at 3.67% purity – the maximum purity level set in Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal – leaves Iran a long way from nuclear weapon-grade purity.”

“Iran’s practical capacity to enrich uranium is currently zero due to previous US attacks on its nuclear sites, so the debate about the right to enrich is largely theoretical and one of national sovereignty.”

“At the moment, Iran is picking and choosing the nationality of the ships going through the strait.”

“On Saturday, according to Tanker Tracker, 2m barrels of Iraqi oil and 4m barrels of Saudi oil went through the strait.”