“If they want to discuss, all they have to do is call us,” justified the American president. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with Pakistani leaders on Saturday.
American envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were initially expected in Islamabad (Pakistan) on Saturday, April 25. But they will not come: Donald Trump announced to Fox News and CNN that he had canceled the trip. Apparently impatient and reluctant to send his teams on a “15, 16-hour” journey, he stated that discussions could very well be conducted over the phone. “Too much time wasted in travel, too much work! (…) Nobody knows who is in charge, including us,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. “If they want to discuss, all they have to do is call us.”
Speaking later on the tarmac at Palm Beach Airport in Florida, the American president mentioned a meeting with the Iranians planned for “Tuesday” in Islamabad. “When they mentioned the meeting planned for Tuesday, I said, ‘Tuesday, that’s a long way off, but in the end, it’s a long road,'” he told journalists before heading to Washington where he is to attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in the evening.
When asked what made him change his mind, he replied: “Nothing. It’s just that they presented us with a document that should have been better. And, strangely, as soon as I canceled, in less than ten minutes, they submitted a new, much better document.” And he added: “We have all the cards in hand.”
