00:00Well, good morning, everybody. And let me say a couple of notes of appreciation. First of all,
00:05to the Prime Minister of Pakistan and to Field Marshal Munir, who were both incredible hosts.
00:12And whatever shortcomings of the negotiation, it wasn't because of the Pakistanis who did an
00:16amazing job and really tried to help us and the Iranians bridge the gap and get to a deal.
00:22We have been at it now for 21 hours, and we've had a number of substantive discussions with the
00:30Iranians. That's the good news. The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement. And I think
00:35that's bad news for Iran much more than it's bad news for the United States of America. So we go
00:40back to the United States having not come to an agreement. We've made very clear what our red
00:45lines are, what things we're willing to accommodate them on and what things we're not willing to
00:49accommodate them on. And we've made that as clear as we possibly could. And they have chosen
00:54not to accept our terms. Questions?
00:58Sir, Nick Robertson from CNN. Precisely what have they rejected here? Can you help us understand it
01:06a little bit?
01:07Well, I won't go into all the details because I don't want to negotiate in public after we negotiated
01:12for 21 hours in private. But the simple fact is that we need to see an affirmative commitment that
01:18they will not seek a nuclear weapon, and they will not seek the tools that would enable them
01:23to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon. That is the core goal of the President of the United States,
01:27and that's what we've tried to achieve through these negotiations. Again, their nuclear programs,
01:33such as it is, the enrichment facilities that they've had before, they've been destroyed.
01:39But the simple question is, do we see a fundamental commitment of will for the Iranians not to develop
01:46a nuclear weapon, not just now, not just two years from now, but for the long term? We haven't
01:50seen that yet. We hope that we will. Jen? Was there a framework on anything, and also did the Iranian
01:55frozen assets come up, and did you reach any conclusions on those frozen assets?
02:00We talked about all those issues, Jen, and we talked about a number of issues beyond that. And so
02:05certainly those things came up. But again, we just could not get to a situation where the Iranians
02:12were willing to accept our terms. I think that we were quite flexible. We were quite
02:16accommodating. The President told us, you need to come here in good faith and make your best effort
02:21to get a deal. We did that. And unfortunately, we weren't able to make any headway. Preston.
02:27Mr. Vice President, how often did you communicate with President Trump throughout the negotiations?
02:31There were reports that there were multiple rounds where there were breaks in between negotiations.
02:37How often did you communicate with the President throughout those rounds, and what was he saying
02:41as you were going through these negotiations that you said fell short?
02:44Yeah, obviously, we were talking to the President consistently. I don't know how many times we
02:48talked to him, a half dozen times, a dozen times over the past 21 hours. We obviously also talked
02:53to Admiral Cooper, to Pete, to Marco, to the entire national security team. We talked to Scott
02:57Besson a number of times. So look, we were constantly in communication with the team because we were
03:02negotiating in good faith. And we leave here, and we leave here with a very simple proposal,
03:09a method of understanding that is our final and best offer. We'll see if the Iranians accept it.
03:16Thank you.
03:17Mr. Vice President, where did you speak to the Strait of Hormuz?
03:19Are we going back to Hormuz, sir?
03:20Did you talk to Prime Minister Netanyahu at all today?
03:22What about the Strait of Hormuz?
03:24Did they give you any indication of the Supreme Leader's health?
03:56That's not it.
04:23It's a failure of Islamabad talks.
04:25It's a failure of Islamabad.
04:27What are they saying?
04:30We have not come to an agreement. We've made very clear what our red lines are, what
04:35things we're willing to accommodate them on, and what things we're not willing to accommodate
04:39them on. And we've made that as clear as we possibly could. And they have chosen not
04:44to accept our terms. Questions?
04:47Sir, Nick Robinson from CNN. Precisely what have they rejected here? Can you help us understand
04:55it a little bit?
04:57Well, I won't go into all the details because I don't want to negotiate in public after
05:01we've negotiated for 21 hours in private. But the simple fact is that we need to see an
05:06affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon, and they will not seek
05:11the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon. That is the core goal
05:16of the President of the United States, and that's what we've tried to achieve through these negotiations.
05:20Again, their nuclear programs, such as it is, the enrichment facilities that they had
05:26before, they've been destroyed. But the simple question is, do we see a fundamental commitment
05:32of will for the Iranians not to develop a nuclear weapon, not just now, not just two years from
05:38now, but for the long term? We haven't seen that yet. We hope that we will. Jen?
05:42Was there a framework on anything, and also did the Iranian frozen assets come up, and did
05:47you reach any conclusions on those frozen assets?
05:49We talked about all those issues, Jen, and we talked about a number of issues beyond
05:54that, and so certainly those things came up. But again, we just could not get to a situation
06:00where the Iranians were willing to accept our terms. I think that we were quite flexible.
06:05We were quite accommodating. The President told us, you need to come here in good faith and
06:09make your best effort to get a deal. We did that, and unfortunately, we weren't able to
06:14make any headway. Preston?
06:17Mr. Vice President, how often did you communicate with President Trump throughout the negotiations?
06:21There were reports that there were multiple rounds where there were breaks in between negotiations.
06:26How often did you communicate with the President throughout those rounds, and what was he saying
06:31as you were going through these negotiations that you said fell short?
06:33Yeah, obviously, we were talking to the President consistently. I don't know how many
06:38times we talked to him, a half dozen times, a dozen times over the past 21 hours. We obviously
06:42also talked to Admiral Cooper, to Pete, to Marco, to the entire national security team. We talked
06:47to Scott Besson a number of times. So look, we were constantly in communication with the team
06:51because we were negotiating in good faith. And we leave here, and we leave here with a very
06:58simple proposal, a method of understanding that is our final and best offer. We'll see
07:05if the Iranians accept it. Thank you.
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