Trump cancels US delegation’s Pakistan trip as Iran peace talks stall: ‘They can call us anytime they want’
President Trump has called off sending a US delegation to Pakistan Saturday for peace talks with Iran – nixing a trip he said would be a waste of time.
Trump, who told a Post reporter in Islamabad to “come home” shortly after he made the announcement, said his team was wasting too much time on traveling.
“I just cancelled the trip of my representatives going [to] Islamabad, Pakistan, to meet with the Iranians,” the president posted on Truth Social Saturday afternoon. “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!!!”
The White House did not respond earlier Saturday to questions about when Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff were expected to depart for Islamabad.
The president expanded on his rationale while speaking with reporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, Saturday afternoon.
“There’s no reason to wait two days, have people traveling for 16, 17 hours, and we’re not doing it that way,” Trump said.
“When they want, they can call me.”
Asked what changed from Friday when the White House sounded more optimistic, Trump claimed Tehran’s offer improved.
“It’s just that they gave us a paper that should have been better. And interestingly, immediately, when I canceled it, within 10 minutes, we got a new paper that was much better,” he said without providing details.
The president also indicated he didn’t want to foot the gas bill of sending his negotiators to Pakistan.
“Traveling takes too long, too expensive. I’m a very cost-conscious person,” Trump said.
The Iranian team had met with Pakistani mediators Field Marshal Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and had plans to travel on to Russia and Oman, in a trip Tehran had previously announced.
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Trump’s sudden change of course came just hours after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that Kushner and Witkoff “will be off to Pakistan again tomorrow morning to engage in talks, direct talks intermediated by the Pakistanis” with the Iranians.
The last round of talks, which Vice President JD Vance led, ended April 12 without a deal — despite 21 hours of marathon negotiations.
The scuttled diplomacy comes on a weekend when Trump flew home to Mar-a-Lago to attend a Republican National Committee confab and attend a cryptocurrency event – with plans to head back to Washington later Saturday to attend the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Tensions remain high in the Middle East despite a tenuous cease-fire that was agreed to on April 8.
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