US President Donald Trump on Friday cancelled the planned Islamabad trip of special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, abruptly stalling Pakistan-mediated efforts to resume nuclear and ceasefire talks with Iran.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said: “I just cancelled the trip of my representatives going [to] 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. Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!”
Trump first confirmed the decision to Fox News, telling the network the envoys would no longer make “an 18-hour flight to sit around and talk about nothing.” The president was attending a cryptocurrency event at Mar-a-Lago when the announcement was made.
The cancellation came hours after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi concluded meetings in Islamabad with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir. Araghchi departed for Oman without any announcement on a US arrival, telling reporters he had presented Iran’s position on a possible framework but was “yet to see if the United States is truly serious about diplomacy.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had earlier confirmed the delegation, saying the Iranians “wanted to talk in person” and that Vice President JD Vance was on standby pending progress. CBS News reported, citing Pakistani officials, that Araghchi is expected to return to Islamabad within days.
The collapse of the weekend track follows an earlier US-Iran round at the same Serena Hotel venue and reverses the morning’s Witkoff-Kushner deployment with Vance on standby. With diplomacy stalled, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s earlier warning that the Hormuz blockade is “growing and going global” is left as the operative US posture, keeping pressure on Sri Lanka’s fuel import route through the Strait.
