In a recent statement, the American president said to his colleagues who were about to leave, “No, you are not going to take an 18-hour flight to go there.” Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he canceled the expected trip of his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for discussions with Iran in Pakistan, but clarified that it did not mean a resumption of war. “I just canceled the trip of my representatives to Islamabad, Pakistan, to meet with the Iranians,” the American president wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“Too much time wasted in travel, too much work! (…) Nobody knows who is in charge, including themselves,” he added, emphasizing that he had “all the cards in hand.” “If they want to talk, they just have to call us,” stated the Republican leader.
Witkoff and Kushner were supposed to leave on Saturday for Islamabad for a revival of negotiations to permanently end the war in the Middle East, as indicated by the White House on Friday, highlighting that this meeting was a request from Tehran.
In an interview with Axios, Trump was asked whether this cancellation meant that he was going to resume the war. Trump replied, “No. It does not mean that. We have not thought about it yet,” as reported by the Axios journalist who spoke to him on the phone.
“We have all the cards. They can call us whenever they want, but you will no longer take 18-hour flights to sit and talk about nothing,” he also stated to a Fox News journalist.
The cancellation of the trip comes as the Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, concluded a visit to Islamabad on Saturday, acting as a mediator.
This week, the United States indefinitely extended a ceasefire with Iran, which had come into effect on April 8 after Israeli-American strikes against Iran launched on February 28.
