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US President Donald Trump on Saturday downplayed speculation about a possible resumption of conflict with Iran after he 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 for talks with the Islamic Republic for the second round of peace talks aimed at achieving a comprehensive resolution to hostilities in West Asia.
According to a report by Axios, Trump said that he, along with his administration, hasn't thought about if US would resume the conflict with Iran after the much-anticipated second round of talks did not come to fruition. When asked by Axios whether the move of cancelling the trip signalled a return to war, Trump clarified: "No. It doesn't mean that. We haven't thought about it yet." The US President also defended his decision to call off the trip to Islamabad for discussions with Iranian officials. "I see no point of sending them on an 18 hour flight in the current situation [of the negotiations]. It's too long. We can do it just as well by telephone. The Iranians can call us if they want. We are not going to travel just to sit there," Trump said, as quoted by Axios. He further asserted a strong US negotiating position, stating, "We have all the cards. We are not going to go there to sit around talking about nothing." This comes moments after the Iranian delegation, led by Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, departed Islamabad 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. As reported by 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. The departure effectively signals the end of Islamabad's hopes to facilitate the much-anticipated second round of direct dialogue, as Araghchi is now set to travel to Oman and Russia. According to a statement issued by Araghchi in 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 hosted in Islamabad - featuring US Vice President JD Vance and Iranian Parliamentary Speaker MB Ghalibaf - dragged on for a gruelling 21 hours without yielding a single breakthrough. (ANI)
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