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US President Donald Trump on Saturday said he had cancelled the scheduled trip of Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Senior Adviser Jared Kushner to Islamabad due to "tremendous infighting and confusion" within Iran's leadership.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump stated that he had called off the trip of his representatives who were scheduled to travel to Islamabad in what would have been the second round of peace talks with Iran aimed at achieving a comprehensive resolution to hostilities in West Asia. "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! Besides which, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their "leadership." Nobody knows who is in charge, including them," Trump stated in his post. He also sought to put onus on Iran for further talks. "Also, we have all the cards; they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!" Trump's post added. Earlier, Trump told Fox News that he had cancelled the scheduled visit of the US delegation, led by Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Senior Adviser and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, to Islamabad. The development was shared by Fox News White House correspondent Aishah Hasnie in a post on X, where she stated that Trump cancelled the visit of the delegation. Hasnie was on a direct phone conversation with the US President. "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'," Trump said as quoted by Fox News. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had said yesterday that the President has decided to dispatch Special Envoy Witkoff and Jared Kushner back to Islamabad. "The Iranians want to talk. They want to talk in person... Steve and Jared will be heading to Pakistan tomorrow to hear the Iranians out. We hope progress will be made and we hope that positive developments will come from this meeting...The Vice President is on standby and will be willing to dispatch to Pakistan if we feel it's a necessary use of his time," Leavitt had said. The Iranian delegation, led by Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had reached Islamabad on Friday and left the Pakistan's capital on Saturday evening (local time) after a day of high-level meetings with the Pakistan leadership, leaving Pakistan's ambitious claims of brokering a US-Iran peace deal as part of the second round of negotiations in tatters. According to Al Jazeera, the delegation left the Pakistani capital after delivering an "official list of demands" to Pakistani leaders for the US and Israel in order to achieve a complete solution to the conflict in West Asia. Araghchi will visit Oman and Russia as part of his three-nation tour. According to a statement issued by Araghchi on Telegram, the Iranian Foreign Minister explained Iran's "principled positions regarding the latest developments related to the ceasefire and the complete end of the imposed war against" the Islamic Republic by US and Israeli forces to the Pakistani side. This weekend's diplomatic theatre is rapidly mirroring the failures of the past. The first round of talks earlier this month hosted in Islamabad - featuring US Vice President JD Vance and Iranian Parliamentary Speaker MB Ghalibaf - dragged on for a gruelling 21 hours without yielding any breakthrough. (ANI)
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