Trump CANCELS US envoy’s journey to Pakistan for Iran peace negotiations
President Donald Trump has cancelled Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner‘s trip to Pakistan for Iran peace negotiations, it has emerged.
Trump has claimed it is not worth sending his envoys overseas when the US already has ‘all the cards’ over Tehran, he told Fox News‘ White House correspondent Aishah Hasnie on Saturday.
‘I’ve told my people a little while ago they were getting ready to leave, and I said, “Nope, you’re not making an 18 hour flight to go there. We have all the cards. They can call us anytime they want, but you’re not going to be making any more 18 hour flights to sit around talking about nothing”,’ the president said.
Trump added to Fox News: ‘They can call us anytime they want.’
The president’s remarks came after it was revealed that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left Pakistan on Saturday without meeting the US delegation.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh previously said Tehran was not yet ready to hold a new round of face-to-face talks with US officials, citing Washington’s refusal to abandon ‘maximalist’ demands on key issues.
Khatibzadeh also said his country will not hand over its enriched uranium to the US, rejecting claims made by Trump.
Iranian officials have also openly asked how they can trust the US after talks last year and early this year over Tehran’s nuclear program ended with it being attacked by the US and Israel.
President Donald Trump, pictured Friday, has claimed it is not worth sending US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan for peace talks when the US already has ‘all the cards’ over Iran
The White House previously said Trump was sending Kushner and Witkoff, pictured April 12, to Islamabad on Saturday to ‘hear the Iranians out’
Araghchi arrived in Islamabad on Friday and held a series of meetings with Pakistani Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday.
They discussed what Araghchi described as Iran’s red lines for negotiations, and said Tehran would engage with Pakistan’s mediation efforts ‘until a result is achieved.’ Iran had said talks would be indirect.
Earlier, the White House said Trump was sending Witkoff and Kushner to Islamabad on Saturday to ‘hear the Iranians out’.
An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei previously said that Araghchi would only be meeting with ‘Pakistani high-level officials’ and that ‘no meeting is planned’ with the US.
Vice President JD Vance, who led the US delegation in the first round of talks with Tehran that collapsed, was not expected to attend the second round of negotiations.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt noted on Friday that he had been placed on ‘standby’ to travel to Pakistan should peace talks become serious and said it was not a case of the VP being sidelined by President Trump.
In a statement, Leavitt said Friday night: ‘Steve and Jared will be heading to Pakistan tomorrow to hear the Iranians out.
‘The president, the vice president, the secretary of state, will be waiting here in the United States for updates, and the vice president, I understand, is on standby and will be willing to dispatch to Pakistan if we feel it’s a necessary use of his time.’
The latest effort to broker a deal comes as an indefinite ceasefire has paused most fighting, but economic fallout is still mounting with global energy shipments disrupted by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Pakistan has been trying to get US and Iranian officials back to the table after Trump this week announced an indefinite extension of the ceasefire with Iran, honoring Islamabad’s request for more time for diplomatic outreach.
President Trump said on Friday that Iran was ‘making an offer and we’ll have to see’, but did not state what the offer was.
Trump has also been adamant that any deal has to include Iran giving up its enriched uranium and the free traffic of oil through the Strait of Hormuz.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
