US vice president JD Vance has claimed “a lot of progress” was made during talks with Iran over the weekend, despite the two sides failing to agree on a resolution. 

Speaking to Fox News on Monday, Vance – who led the US delegation in talks in the Pakistani capital Islamabad – said Washington had communicated to Tehran where it “could make some accommodation” and where it would remain inflexible. 

He insisted that Donald Trump was adamant that any enriched nuclear material must be removed from Iran and a mechanism put in place to verify it is not developing nuclear weapons.

Vance added that Tehran “moved in our direction, which is why I think we would say that we had some ‌good signs” but he claimed “they didn’t move far enough”. 

His comments come amid reports of ongoing talks between the US and Iran, with Trump saying the US has been “called by the other side” and insisting “they’d like to make a deal very badly”. 

For context: On Monday, the US began a blockade on Iranian ports, with Trump threatening to “eliminate” any Iranian vessels near the blockade. 

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, a member of Iran’s foreign policy and national security committee, described the move as militarily baseless propaganda and warned that any US Navy vessel attempting to block Iran’s ports would be “sent to the bottom of the sea”.