President Trump on Saturday called off a planned trip by two of his top advisers to Pakistan for talks aimed at ending the war with Iran, saying his team would not make the long flight.
“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,'” Trump said in a statement to Fox News. “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.”
Trump, in a post minutes later on Truth Social, said there was “tremendous infighting and confusion” within Iran’s leadership and that “nobody knows who is in charge.”
Steve Witkoff, the special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, had been scheduled to fly to Islamabad on Saturday for a new round of talks. Pakistan has been mediating between Washington and Tehran. On Friday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the Iranians had asked for the talks and that Trump was “always willing to give diplomacy a chance.” Witkoff and Kushner, she said, were heading to Pakistan “to hear the Iranians out.”
An earlier round of talks led by Vice President JD Vance in Islamabad on April 11 and 12 ended without an agreement. Leavitt said Friday that Vance would not travel this weekend.
Vice President JD Vance speaks as Jared Kushner, left, and Steve Witkoff, special envoy for peace missions, listen during a news conference.
(Pool via Getty Images)
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, had arrived in Islamabad on Friday and met with Pakistani leaders, including the country’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, before leaving Saturday, according to Pakistani officials and the Iranian embassy in Pakistan, the New York Times reported.
A spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, Esmail Baghaei, said Friday that no direct U.S.-Iran meeting was planned and that Iran would convey its position through Pakistani officials.
Iran’s military warned Saturday that it would respond if the U.S. continues its blockade of Iranian ports, which Trump ordered after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. blockade should “face a response from Iran’s powerful armed forces,” the military said in a statement carried by Iranian state media.
An earlier round of talks led by Vice President JD Vance ended without a breakthrough. The two-week ceasefire announced on April 8 is set to expire on Wednesday.
