As the U.S.-Iran ceasefire deadline looms, here are the main sticking points



A member of Pakistani security personnel looks over a checkpoint from a police booth amid heightened security ahead of a potential meeting between U.S. and Iranian officials in Islamabad, on Monday.

A member of Pakistani security personnel looks over a checkpoint from a police booth amid heightened security ahead of a potential meeting between U.S. and Iranian officials in Islamabad, on Monday.
A member of Pakistani security personnel looks over a checkpoint from a police booth amid heightened security ahead of a potential meeting between U.S. and Iranian officials in Islamabad, on Monday.
Rebecca Conway | Getty Images

Vice President Vance is expected to travel to Islamabad soon to lead a U.S. delegation for a second round of peace talks with Iran as the countries' two-week ceasefire nears its expiration day.

But the prospects for renewed diplomacy remain unclear. Iranian state media say no Iranian delegations have traveled to Islamabad "so far." President Trump reiterated, in an interview with CNBC Tuesday, that he does not want to extend the ceasefire.

On Monday, Trump told Bloomberg News the ceasefire expires Wednesday evening Eastern time.

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Iran's chief negotiator and parliament speaker, accused the United States late Monday of forcing Iran to the negotiating table and said that on the contrary, Iran has been preparing "to reveal new cards on the battlefield."

"We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats," Qalibaf wrote in a post on social media.

Representatives from more than a dozen foreign diplomatic missions, United Nations offices and the media view damage at sites previously targeted by U.S.-Israeli strikes in Tehran, Iran, on Monday.
Representatives from more than a dozen foreign diplomatic missions, United Nations offices and the media view damage at sites previously targeted by U.S.-Israeli strikes in Tehran, Iran, on Monday.
Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

Officials in Islamabad say the city remains ready to host the talks, though Pakistan's government has given no formal indication about the status of its ongoing mediation efforts.

The first round of talks, held just over a week ago in Islamabad, ended without an agreement. Vance later accused Iran of refusing to accept Washington's terms on Iran's plans for nuclear enrichment.

Here are the main sticking points in the negotiations:

What is the U.S. asking Iran to do?

For officials in Washington, the main points of contention remain control over the Strait of Hormuz and the future of Iran's nuclear program.

The Trump administration has said it wants commercial shipping through the strategic waterway to be fully restored. Around 20% of the world's crude oil and natural gas passes through the narrow strait.

Since the start of the war on Feb. 28, Iran's main leverage over the U.S. has been its control of the strait, including the collection of tolls from commercial ships passing through it as a condition for reopening the waterway.

"The weaker party gains just by virtue of entering into a negotiation process," Mark Freeman, executive director of the Institute for Integrated Transitions, a peace and security think tank based in Spain, told NPR.

Iran's grip on the Strait of Hormuz has rattled global markets, raising the national average price of gas above $4 a gallon.

The other big demand coming from Washington centers on Iran's nuclear program – and whether Tehran will accept limits on nuclear enrichment.

In an interview with The John Fredericks Show Monday, a pro-MAGA radio talk show, President Trump said Iran would return to negotiations, but insisted the country "will not have a nuclear weapon."

"They're going to negotiate," Trump said. "And if they don't, they're going to see problems like they've never seen before."

A commercial vessel is seen off the coast of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Monday.
A commercial vessel is seen off the coast of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Monday.
AFP via Getty Images

Trump has consistently said that one of the main objectives of the war with Iran is to ensure that it never has a nuclear weapon. In his first interview after the fighting started, he said he believed Iran was "going to attack first" if the United States did not act. Trump did not cite intelligence to support that claim.

Vice President Vance said the first round of ceasefire talks held over a week ago broke down because Iran would not commit to forgoing a nuclear weapon.

"The simple fact is that we need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon, and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon," Vance said.

For Iran, Lebanon and end to U.S. blockade remain key demands

For Tehran, the key demands for extending the ceasefire include an end to the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and guarantees that the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah will not resume.

Israel and Lebanon agreed on a 10-day ceasefire last week, pausing fighting between Israel's military and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. That ceasefire is still holding.

Mourners carry the flag-draped caskets of members of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah who were killed in southern Lebanon during their funeral in the Kafaat area, in Beirut's southern suburbs, on Monday.
Mourners carry the flag-draped caskets of members of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah who were killed in southern Lebanon during their funeral in the Kafaat area, in Beirut's southern suburbs, on Monday.
Fadel Itani/AFP via Getty Images

Iran had earlier refused to engage in more negotiations with the United States unless Israel stopped its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel, however, has vowed to keep its troops in southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah said the Lebanese people maintain the "right to resist" Israeli forces in the country.

Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah broke out shortly after the start of the war with Iran on Feb. 28, with Hezbollah firing rockets into northern Israel in a show of solidarity with Tehran. Israeli forces responded with airstrikes and an invasion of southern Lebanon. Israel says it is creating a "buffer zone" to distance Hezbollah fire from Israeli border communities.

Israel's strikes have killed more than 2,300 people and displaced over 1 million in Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities. Hezbollah's attacks have killed at least 12 Israeli soldiers and two civilians, according to Israeli authorities.

As for the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, Iran has made it clear it sees lifting the blockade as a condition for further diplomacy.

After the first round of ceasefire talks in Islamabad ended without an agreement, the U.S. military blockaded Iranian shipping ports, in a bid to pressure Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as well as put economic pressure on Iran to end the war. The U.S. military says it has forced 27 ships to turn back since the blockade began. However, maritime data analysis firm Lloyd's List says it has tracked "shadow fleet" vessels moving in and out of Iranian ports.

Iran briefly reopened the key shipping route for less than a day, only to announce it was reinstating control over the strait once more in response to the continued U.S. blockade.

Iranian officials have also signaled they want financial relief, including access to $6 billion in frozen assets, and do not want to negotiate while Washington keeps up military and economic pressure.

Rebecca Rosman contributed to this report from London.

Copyright 2026, NPR



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What is Azure DevOps?

Microsoft Azure DevOps, formerly known as Visual Studio Team Service (VSTS) is a software that utilises several Agile Methodologies to improve the process of planning, developing, and delivering software. 

Azure DevOps provides its users with a ready-made platform to turn their code into an application. The developers have access to so many Agile tools that help in managing tests, versioning code, and deploying projects.

The tool is specifically known for its 5 different services that may or may not be used individually. 

  • Azure Boards – used by cross-functional teams for planning, tracking, and discussing the work
  • Azure Repos – managing the code with the help of version control tools
  • Azure Pipelines – used to build and test codes automatically
  • Azure Test Plans – used to provide test management solutions for user acceptance testing.
  • Azure Artifacts – used to install and publish packages in Azure DevOps.

After knowing the basics of Azure DevOps, it is crucial to know the basics of Jira before checking out the differences between the two tools. 

What is Jira?

Jira was originally created as a tool to track bugs and issues but has turned out to be a widely used project management tool. The tool enables its users to track project growth and development. Jira is at times chosen over Azure DevOps for two simple reasons: scalability and deep customization. 

Developed by Atlassian, Jira supports all Agile Methodologies along with being extremely flexible for diverse processes and environments. The tool also enables you to use agile boards, backlogs, roadmaps, add-ons, and integrations to plan and track software development projects.

Now, that you know the basics of both, Azure DevOps and Jira, it is the right time to learn about the differences between the two. 

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Azure DevOps vs Jira

Azure DevOps and Jira definitely have a lot in common and are used by a lot of companies worldwide. It must be understood that even though they are extremely powerful and may be used for the same purpose, they have a lot of differences too. 

Let’s have a look at the differences between Azure DevOps and Jira based on the following: 

Cloud Service

Cloud Service or Services refer to a wide variety of services that could be provided to an organisation over the internet. So, for that purpose, Azure DevOps uses Microsoft Azure services, whereas, Jira uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) as their cloud service provider in several regions of the world.

Customizable Dashboards

A Customizable Dashboard refers to a single screen that is used by a tool or software to display all the relevant metrics. All the DevOps services, including Azure DevOps and Jira, can utilise this feature and display the most relevant data on the screen. For this purpose, Azure DevOps uses tools popularly known as “widgets”, whereas the tools used by Jira are called “gadgets.” 

Product road mapping

Product road mapping can be one of the decisive features for you to choose Jira over Azure DevOps. Azure DevOps has recently added Product road mapping to its features which is not that well integrated. To access Product road mapping in Azure DevOps, you will need separate applications like Epic Timeline and Feature Timeline, which are available as a plugin via the Microsoft Marketplace. Whereas, Jira has had Product road mapping for a very long time. Jira’s inbuilt road mapping is well developed and optimised. 

Traceability

Now, if Traceability is one of the things you are looking for, Azure DevOps must be your pick. Azure DevOps provides traceability from the beginning of the Software Development process to the end, the deployment process. Whereas Jira doesn’t provide that great traceability. Although you can use GitHub to relate commits, pull requests and other changes, you will never know if the task is completed with each deployment.

Search Capabilities

Another thing that makes Jira stand out is its Search Capabilities. Azure DevOps is lagging far behind when it comes to Search capabilities as it provides no advanced capabilities like Jira. Whereas Jira comes with amazingly advanced search capabilities which enable you to find issues within the blink of your eye. Jira Query Language(JQL) enables the user to find bugs quickly and not just that, finding an issue with simple text is extremely easy. To top it all up, in Jira the results of your searches are not just saved, but they are emailed too.

Purpose

Azure DevOps and Jira both are widely used by organisations today. So, talking just in reference to the purpose, Azure DevOps is used by companies to enable amazing collaboration between the Development team and Operations team. In simpler words, if someone is choosing Azure DevOps their entire focus is on the Software Development Lifecycle. Whereas, if you want the focus to be on agile reporting, problem tracking, and implementing other agile methodologies, Jira must be your pick. 

Now, that you have covered the main topic and understood the contrast between Azure DevOps and Jira, let’s explore their pros and cons one after the other.

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Features of Azure DevOps

Azure DevOps has a lot of amazing features if someone wants to build a software product from scratch. Software Developers can use these features to manage code, test their applications, and deploy the same using the CI/CD pipeline.

Some of the main features of Azure DevOps are:

1. Easy project management

Azure DevOps provides interactive and customised tools which make it easy for the Software Development teams to manage their projects. 

2. Azure Pipelines

The feature of Azure Pipelines enables Azure DevOps to automate the building and testing of software, i.e. enabling Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery, by creating workflows. 

3. Customized dashboards

The tool enables different teams to create their customised dashboards as per their requirements. This helps them in agile planning, progress tracking, work visualization, and reporting. 

4. Integration

Using Azure DevOps, the users can collaborate with external stakeholders by integrating with several external applications like GitHub and JIRA.

5. Pipeline Templates

The tool provides pipeline templates which can be executed by Azure cloud-hosted agents or local hosted agents. Also, the users can customize these templates according to their requirements in the form of YAML templates. 

6. Azure Test Plans

Another powerful tool is Azure Test Plans which helps in improving the overall quality of the project by enabling end-to-end testing. 

Features of Jira

Jira has numerous outstanding features if someone wants to plan and track all their software development projects. The tool provides a lot of useful features to manage these projects in complex scenarios like agile boards, backlogs, roadmaps, integrations etc. 

Some of the main features of Jira are:

1. Agile Development

Jira is one of the finest tools when it comes to Agile Development as it offers the utilisation of all the Scrum and Kanban board features. When you start your project, you can choose your project type from Scrum or Kanban.

2. Project Tracking

Here the users can track their software projects at any given point. JQL enables you to track some specific projects by using filters or some specific issues.

3. Mobile Application

Using Jira, you won’t be limited to a desktop or an on-premise system, you can use the native mobile application. This makes the tool more preferred by remote teams who are working from diverse locations. 

4. Reporting

The data is delivered by Jira in form of reports which helps in commenting on the actual situation. Not just that, these reports provide a lot of statistical data regarding the project, throughout the process. Some of the most popular reports provided by Jira include – Version Report, Resolved vs. Created Issues Report, Pie Chart Report, Average Age Report, Velocity Chart, Sprint Report, etc

5. Product Integration

Jira provides many feature integrations which make software development even more impactful and easier. Some of the popular Jira Integrations currently include Salesforce Sales Cloud, Atlassian Confluence, GitHub, Service Desk, Zendesk, etc.

6. Jira Roadmaps

The tool provides roadmaps which can be utilised by developers or users to keep track of the project. These roadmaps enable the users to handle and visualise the project growth, along with checking the schedule for bug fixing.

If you want to Explore more about Jira? then read our updated article – Jira Tutorial

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Pros and Cons of Azure DevOps

Pros:
Easy to use

Azure DevOps is an extremely simple tool for any beginner to start with. When it comes to designing and integration visualisation, the classic editor offers an easy Graphic User Interface (GUI). There are two features of defining a pipeline: one is using this classic editor while the second one is YAML, in which the same steps can be defined. 

Flexible

Another reason which makes Azure DevOps stand out is the flexibility that comes with it. All the services provided by the tool can not just be used independently but they can also be integrated with a lot of already existing tools in the organisation. 

Platform Independent

Microsoft Azure DevOps is a platform-independent tool that can work with any platform or Operating System (Windows, Linux, macOS) and language (.Net, PHP, Java, C, C++, Python, etc). 

Rapid Features Upgrades

Microsoft has already published a roadmap for Azure DevOps, and along with that several new features are being added to the tool rapidly. There are several new features that are launched in short spans, usually three weeks.

Access to other development services.

Azure DevOps provides numerous features like project management, version control, automated builds, release management, reporting, and testing. The tool will also enable you to access development services in Microsoft Cloud, like Office 365 etc that not only enable collaboration among teams but also the configuration of processes for efficient working.

Access from anywhere

Azure DevOps is what you need to provide your teams with a secure and safe environment if they work remotely or from some different location. The tool will help teams to work with amazing flexibility and collaborate wherever and whenever needed.

Cons:
Integration of non-Microsoft Platforms

One of the prominent disadvantages of using Azure DevOps is that it cannot be integrated with non-Microsoft Platforms which limits its acceptability.

Azure Pipeline

Azure DevOps has a simple and straightforward workflow, i.e. there are no if-else or switch-case constructions allowed in Azure DevOps, which makes the development of workflows difficult. 

Pros and Cons of Jira

Pros
Agile Project Management

Using Jira, agile teams can use Kanban and Scrum with the agile boards. This will enable the Kanban team to track their workflow and monitor all the progress to efficiently and effectively complete the project. Similarly, for the Scrum team, it becomes easier to break huge chunks of work into sprints, focus on them and complete them faster.  

Organization Alignment

Jira roadmaps are the key to a great alignment among teams. Keeping in mind the organization’s goal, the teams can collaboratively come up with an effective way of completing tasks. These roadmaps will enable the team members to keep a track of the project’s progress and keep an eye on dependencies on different team members. 

Reports and Insights

There are ready-to-use dashboards provided by Jira that help in having up-to-date information on whatever is going on. It helps teams to deliver projects while keeping in mind the time boundations. There are backlog insights which help teams in planning their sprints to deliver something particular to the customer. 

Integrations

The capabilities of Jira can be extended with a lot of applications. It is up to the team and team members to choose a tool of their choice. There are tools that help teams in their different nature of work like there are specific tools for designers, developers and many more, helping teams to always come out with flying colours. 

[ Related Article: Jira training in hyderabad ]

Cons
Difficult Setup

The initial set-up of the tool is difficult making the overall learning curve for users challenging. If you or your team are looking for something that simply works and helps you as soon as it is out of the box, then Jira with its vast configuration options isn’t for you. 

Missing Communication Tool

Though there is a process of receiving email notifications in case of issues, there is no quick way of sending messages from Jira itself. If you wish to solve this problem, you must download some chatting application or some plugin.

Suite of Products

There are a lot of products in the Jira Suite which are often confusing for the user. For development teams there is Jira Software, for business teams, there is Jira Work Management, for service management there is Jira Service Management, and there are many more. 

Limited Project Management

No matter how amazing Jira is when it comes to tracking issues or bugs, when it comes to project management there are a lot of limitations. The tool lacks features that are required for several project management processes like managing costs, managing risks etc. 

Frequently asked Jira Interview Questions and Answers !!

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Conclusion

By now, you would know why Azure DevOps and Jira are one of the most widely used Software Development Platforms. In the article, you began with learning the basics of the two tools and how they help organisations in their respective segments of work. Then you went in to check the comparison between Azure DevOps and Jira based on several categories like Cloud service, Customizable dashboards, and Product road mapping. As a part of that comparison, you also had a look at the pros and cons of the two popular tools, one after the other.Once you were well versed with their pros and cons and how they are different, you went on to learn about their features. You had a look at the popular features of both, Azure DevOps and Jira. Post the features you were all set to decide which tool is better suited to your requirements.

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