AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The U.S. and Iran have failed to reach an agreement to end the war. JD Vance led a U.S. delegation to Pakistan to negotiate with senior Iranian officials yesterday. Here he is after the meeting ended.
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JD VANCE: We go back to the United States having not come to an agreement. 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.
RASCOE: Vance reiterated that the U.S. would not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon. Joining us now is senior political correspondent Mara Liasson. Good morning, Mara.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Good morning.
RASCOE: So Vance said the meeting lasted 21 hours, but he came back without an agreement. What happened?
LIASSON: Well, what happened was that Vance was joined yesterday by special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The Iranian delegation was made up of the foreign minister and the speaker of Iran's parliament. They met in Pakistan. The meeting was historic in that sense - the first time senior officials of this high level from both sides have met face-to-face since the Iranian Revolution of 1979. But neither side wanted to compromise, and Vance said no agreement was reached, although it seemed like he was keeping the door open by saying they left Pakistan with, quote, "a very simple proposal. We'll see if the Iranians accept it." He said, the Iranians right now chose not to accept our terms.
Meanwhile, President Trump earlier said, whether or not we make a deal makes no difference to me. The reason is we've won. So it seemed as if the bottom line was that the war stayed the same, with the U.S. military goals accomplished, navy destroyed, the ballistic missile program decimated, but the political goals - not accomplished. In other words, there's still no regime change. Iran has still not agreed to give up its nuclear weapons or its nuclear enrichment program. However, one of the political goals was to get Iran to stop controlling the Strait of Hormuz, and Donald Trump tried to do something about that today. He announced that he's imposing a naval blockade on the strait.
RASCOE: He just posted that on social media. The Strait of Hormuz, as you said, I mean, has been a flashpoint in this war. This is what Trump said about it on Friday.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They're militarily defeated, and now we're going to open up the gulf with or without them. But that'll be open. We're going to be - or the strait, as they call it. And I think it's going to go pretty quickly. And if it doesn't, we'll be able to finish it off one way or the other.
RASCOE: And so what is this blockade he posted about, and when is it supposed to start?
LIASSON: Well, he said it's immediate. He said he's imposing a naval blockade. This would mean that Iran could not export its oil. Of course, neither could any other ships get through the strait. There's not much traffic going through there now. In his post, he said, we will begin destroying the mines the Iranians laid in the strait. Any Iranian who fires at the U.S. or at peaceful vessels will be blown to hell. He also said that the U.S. Navy will be stopping any ships that paid a toll because the Iranians have been charging millions of dollars for ships - the very few ships it's allowed to go through. So it would deprive Iran of revenue, but it's unclear how the blockade would open the strait. It certainly seems as though Trump now understands that as long as Iran controls the strait the U.S. has not won the war, but it's not clear how the naval blockade will open the strait. And as long as it's closed, either by Iran or by the U.S., oil prices are going to stay high, inflation will stay high because, as you said, the strait is a chokepoint for the global oil market.
RASCOE: So how does all this get resolved?
LIASSON: Well, it's not clear. Maybe the naval blockade will cause Iran to say, OK, we'll agree to the Americans' terms. They could start negotiations again. Or Donald Trump could decide to send in ground troops. I don't know if a naval blockade is enough to forcibly open the strait. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said recently that if Iran doesn't turn over its enriched uranium, the U.S. would go in and get it. But experts say that also would involve ground troops, which could be a red line politically for a lot of voters in the U.S. It also could be very risky. I guess another way this gets resploved is that Donald Trump declares victory - he's already been doing that - and he leaves Iran without his major political goals accomplished, without Iran giving up its nuclear program. So it's really unclear how this gets resolved. For now, no ground troops yet, but still no political goals accomplished.
RASCOE: And quickly, Trump had a closed-door meeting with the secretary general of NATO. He's still very mad at NATO, right?
LIASSON: Yes, and I think you could say that NATO has really become a casualty of the Iran war. He's been talking about leaving NATO for many years. Now he said it more definitively that since NATO didn't come to the U.S.'s aid in the war in Iran, that he might not be there to protect them. So I think that if he continues with that, that's a big gift to Vladimir Putin.
RASCOE: That's NPR senior political correspondent Mara Liasson. Mara, thank you so much.
LIASSON: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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