President Donald Trump said Saturday he has decided against sending a U.S. team to Islamabad to negotiate with Pakistani officials and that Iran can “call” the U.S. if it wants to engage in talks to end the war.
“I just cancelled the trip of my representatives going is Islamabad, Pakistan, to meet with the Iranians. Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work!” Trump said on Truth Social.
“Besides which, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their ‘leadership.’ Nobody knows who is in charge, including them,” he added, repeating a claim that experts on Iran have refuted. “Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!”
Trump said in a statement later that U.S. officials are “not going to be making any more 18 hour flights to sit around talking about nothing.”
The cancellation of the trip cast further doubts over an already uncertain situation, with an end to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran proving more elusive.
Steve Witkoff, a U.S. special envoy, and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, were set to travel to Pakistan’s capital for negotiations on Saturday. Iranian state media reported that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had left Pakistan earlier that day after discussions with the country’s leaders, who have been mediating talks between Iran and the U.S.
Iran has said that it would not engage directly with American officials in negotiations, and its leaders have accused the U.S. of violating the tenuous ceasefire by maintaining its blockade on Iranian ports. Trump announced on Tuesday that the U.S. was extending its ceasefire with Iran for a sixth time.
Shortly after Trump announced that Witkoff and Kushner would no longer travel to Islamabad, Araghchi said in a post on X that his meeting with Pakistani officials was “very fruitful.”
“Shared Iran’s position concerning workable framework to permanently end the war on Iran,” Araghchi said. “Have yet to see if the U.S. is truly serious about diplomacy.”
Fox News first reported that the trip was off. Trump also told Axios on Saturday that the trip to Islamabad was “too long” given the state of talks.
“And so we’ll deal by telephone, and they can call us anytime they want,” Trump told reporters Saturday afternoon just before he departed Palm Beach for Washington, where he was scheduled to make his first appearance as president at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Akayla Gardner and Emily Hung contributed to this report.
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