US President Donald Trump on Saturday cancelled a visit by his negotiators to Pakistan for what would have been a potential second round of talks between the US and Iran to discuss a ceasefire for the war in the Gulf, which nears two months.
"Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work!" he wrote in a Truth Social post on Saturday, referring to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi's meetings with Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif and military chief Asim Munir.
Munir had also spoken with several other members of the Iranian delegation, such as Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei, and ambassador Reza Amiri Moghadam.
However, the key highlight of the Araghchi-led meetings in Islamabad was the FM delivering Iran's demands and grievances about the progress of the talks to Pakistani officials, as per a Reuters report, citing officials.
Baqaei explained that this was because no direct meeting was planned to take place between Iran and the US. Tehran is next scheduled to discuss the Gulf situation further with Oman and Russia.
Notably, this contradicts White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's statement that Trump's Middle East envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would leave for Pakistan on Saturday "to engage in direct talks" with the Iranian side.
She had also said that Vice President J.D. Vance, who led the previous round of the Islamabad talks that failed, would be sitting this one out.
“The vice president remains deeply involved in this entire process, and he’ll be standing by here in the United States, along with the president and the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and the entire national security team for updates,” she had said.
In cancelling the envoys' journey to Islamabad for potential talks, Trump has now placed the onus of the talks on the Iranian side, which has repeatedly flagged the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz as a ceasefire violation.
"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," he said, as per a Fox News report.