Iranians reacted with a mixture of disappointment and defiance on Sunday after peace talks with the US failed to reach an agreement, AP reports.

Standing outside a newsstand in the capital, Tehran, Farhad Simia said he had hoped for successful negotiations and an end to the fighting, but stood with Iran despite the failure of the talks. “I’m against war. I think negotiation is the better path,” Simia, 43, said. He blamed “inappropriate demands” by the US for the failure to reach a deal.

Mehdi Hosseini, also 43, agreed: “The fact that the Iranian negotiating team managed to preserve what it achieved in the war, while refusing to back down and surrender, gives reason for hope.”

The streets of Tehran were lined up with large Iranian flags and giant billboards glorifying the country’s leaders and military achievements. One large mural depicted Iranian men in uniform lifting a fishing net out of the sea with a catch of miniature-sized US military aircraft and warships. “The Strait Remains Closed,” the billboard read.

Hamid Haghi, 55, said “America’s overreach” was the reason for the talks’ failure. The US wants “to come to the Strait of Hormuz, which is a legacy from our fathers,” he said. “We can oversee (it) ourselves.”

Like many Iranians, 60-year-old Mohammad Bagher believes Iran should continue to stand strong against the US in what he sees as a war of their own making. “We are a nation of dialogue and negotiation as long as our interests are respected. We have never sought war,” he said. “We will stand firm to the end, we are ready to sacrifice our lives, and will not give them one inch of our land.”

Javad Zarif, a former Iranian foreign minister, said in a post on X this morning that the Pakistan talks failed because Iran is not going to accept terms dictated to it by the US.

He said: “No negotiations – at least with Iran – will succeed based on “our/your terms.” The US must learn: you can’t dictate terms to Iran. It’s not too late to learn. Yet.”

Zarif, who was Iran’s top diplomat between 2013 and 2021 in the government of the ‘moderate’ president Hassan Rouhani, was in office when the US reached its nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 under Barack Obama.

Donald Trump exited the agreement three years later by claiming that Iran was building a nuclear program, without providing evidence to support this claim at the time.

In a call this morning, the UK’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, and the Sultan of Oman agreed that all sides should avoid “any further escalation” in the US-Israel war on Iran.

A Downing Street spokesperson said:

They discussed the peace talks held in Pakistan over the weekend and urged both sides to find a way through. It was vital there was a continuation of the ceasefire, and that all parties avoided any further escalation, the leaders agreed.

His majesty updated on the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, and the prime minister thanked him for Oman’s efforts to rescue sailors from vessels in distress in the region.

Reflecting on international efforts to co-ordinate safe passage for shipping in the region, the prime minister said that following meetings convened by the foreign secretary and British military planners, partners continued to work towards restoring freedom of navigation for the long term.

The prime minister also reiterated the UK’s commitment to ensuring Oman’s security and updated on the UK’s work with Ukraine on drone technology. It was clear Ukraine’s expertise had been vital to the region in recent weeks, while Russia appeared to continue to support Iran’s aggression. The leaders agreed to speak again soon.

You can read what the health secretary, Wes Streeting, said this morning about the peace talks held in Pakistan over the weekend here.

Iran is unable to find the mines it laid in the strait of Hormuz and does not have the capacity to remove the explosives, preventing Iran from allowing more traffic through the waterway, the New York Times reported, citing US officials.

Iran laid mines in the strait of Hormuz last month after the US and Israel declared war against the country, dropping explosives throughout the waterway with small boats.

The US was mostly unable to monitor the small boats that were mining the strait, leaving the country uncertain about the location and number of mines in the waterway.

Maritime traffic through the strait ground almost to a standstill due to the mines, as well as Iranian drones and missiles that threatened to hit ships. A senior Revolutionary Guards official said on 2 March the country would set ships “ablaze” if they tried to traverse the strait.

A small number of ships have continued to pass through after being given the go-ahead by Iran, which allowed through vessels from friendly nations that paid tolls.

US officials have said that Iran placed mines in the strait erratically, and may not have marked where it put all of them. Some mines also drifted or moved from their original location, US officials suggested.

Neither Iran nor the US have the capacity to quickly demine the strait, particularly after the US destroyed much of Iran’s navy.

The internet blackout in Iran has entered its 44th day, according to internet monitoring group NetBlocks. It said in a social media post:

Network data show Iran’s internet blackout is now in its 44th day, continuing in its seventh week past the 1032 hour mark.

The human and economic impacts of the extended censorship measure continue to pile up, breaking global records for shutdowns in a connected society.

Those without access to Starlink or alternative ways to communicate – which are often expensive – are cut off, not only from the outside world but the blackout also severely curtails Iranian’s ability to communicate with each other, making mobilisation, for example, much more difficult.

A select number of officials are still able to use the internet and post regularly on social media about the war. There was an earlier internet shutdown in January during nationwide protests, which helped obscure extreme violence against Iran’s population.

The Fars news agency, which is close to the Iranian security services, is reporting that 21 people have been killed and 13 others injured in Israeli attacks on Lebanon since this morning.

Attacks have been reported across southern Lebanon including in the towns of Qana and Maaroub. We have not been able to independently verify this information yet.

Over in the UK, the health secretary, Wes Streeting, has said the failure to reach a deal in the US-Iran peace talks in Pakistan was “disappointing”. He told Sky News this morning:

It’s obviously disappointing that we haven’t yet seen a breakthrough in negotiations and an end to this war in Iran that is a sustainable one.

But as ever in diplomacy, you’re failing until you succeed. So while these talks may not have ended in success, that doesn’t mean there isn’t merit in continuing to try.

Clearly when you look at the impact of the war in Iran on this country, on other countries around the world who have no part in this war, it is in all of our interests for there to be a breakthrough and an end to this war.

The UK, which has been hit hard by rising bills resulting from the economic impact of the war, has been working on a “practical plan” to try to reopen the strait of Hormuz (to all vessels).

Tehran says no one had expectation of reaching agreement with US in one session: Iran state TV

Iran’s foreign ministry has downplayed the stalling of negotiations on Sunday.

“Naturally, from the beginning we should not have expected to reach an agreement in a single session. No one had such an expectation,” ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said, according to state broadcaster IRIB.

He said Tehran was “confident that contacts between us and Pakistan, as well as our other friends in the region, will continue”.

You can read more about the abrupt end to the talks here:

‘Everything is gone’

William Christou, Abbas Abdel Karim and Lucy Swan have reported today on Israel destroying entire villages as part of its invasion of southern Lebanon.

The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border.

Rights groups fear the tactic of “domicide” trialled in Gaza, where entire areas are made uninhabitable, is being used again.

The Israeli military has said they are targeting Hezbollah infrastructure such as tunnels and military facilities, which it claims the armed group has embedded in civilian homes, through these demolitions.

You can read the full story here:

Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, says it’s “disappointing” that peace talks have failed between the US and Iran, but has urged parties to return to negotiations as a matter of priority.

It is disappointing that the Islamabad talks between the United States and Iran have ended without agreement.

The priority now must be to continue the ceasefire and return to negotiations. We continue to want to see a swift resolution to this conflict.

Any escalation in the conflict would impose an even greater human cost and further impact the global economy.

Pope Leo XIV himself stepped into the international political arena yesterday, the Guardian’s Edward Helmore reported, saying “enough of war” and decrying the “delusion of omnipotence” that drives leaders into global conflict, at evening prayers in St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.

Cardinal Robert McElroy, the archbishop of Washington and a close ally of Pope Leo XIV, has called for Catholics to take civic action against the “immoral” war on Iran.

Reporter Christopher Hale, whose Substack chronicles the Trump administration’s interactions with the papacy, shared a video of the archbishops’s address, in which McElroy called for his congregation to “move beyond prayer”.

As citizens and believers in this democracy that we cherish so deeply, we must advocate for peace with our representatives and leaders.

It is not enough to say we have prayed. We must also act. For it is very possible that the negotiations will fail because of recalcitrance on both sides, and the president will move to re-enter this immoral war.

At that critical juncture, as disciples of Jesus Christ called to be peacemakers in the world, we must answer vocally and in unison: ‘No. Not in our name. Not at this moment. Not with our country.’

What makes this especially interesting, a colleague of mine points out, is that JD Vance, who less than two hours ago led the US exit from peace talks with Iran, converted to Catholicism in 2019.

He recently announced a new memoir on the subject, which you can read more about here:

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency is citing an “informed source” saying Iran is in no hurry to negotiate, Reuters reports – and that as long as the US does not agree to a “reasonable deal”, there will be no change in situation in the strait of Hormuz.

As William Christou reported earlier, the opening of the strait of Hormuz – a chokepoint for a fifth of the world’s oil supply – is a primary demand of the US to end the war in Iran.