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LAST UPDATE | 25 Apr
US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump said he had ordered his envoys not to travel to Pakistan to continue talks with Iranian officials on ending the war.
Trump was to send emissaries Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Islamabad, this time without Vice President JD Vance.
“I’ve told my people a little while ago they were getting ready to leave, and I said, ‘Nope, you’re not making an 18 hour flight to go there.
“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,’” Fox News reported the president as saying in a phone call.
He later confirmed he had cancelled their trip and wrote on Truth Social: “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 previously said Witkoff and Kushner would engage in an “in-person conversation” with Iranian representatives, but Iranian state media said that direct negotiations were not in the cards.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi left Pakistan yesterday evening as officials in Islamabad attempted to facilitate the second round of talks between the US and Iran.
Araghchi met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and other senior officials, two Pakistani officials said.
The Iranian minister wrote on Telegram that they spoke about regional developments, including Iran’s red lines for negotiations.
He did not offer details but said Tehran would continue engaging with Pakistan’s mediation efforts “until a result is achieved”.
“Our military power today is a dominant force, and the enemy is looking for a face-saving way to escape the war quagmire it has become trapped in,” media outlet ISNA quoted a ministry spokesperson as saying.
“The Iranians reached out, as the president called on them to do, and asked for this in-person conversation,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, adding that the talks would “hopefully move the ball forward towards a deal”.
Leavitt said Vance, who led a first round of negotiations in Islamabad two weeks ago that concluded without a deal, would not be joining for the time being, but was on “standby to fly to Pakistan if necessary”.
Meanwhile, a ceasefire between the US and Iran remains in place but the economically vital Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean, remains shut to maritime traffic.
Iran closed the strait after a brief reopening when the US began a naval blockade of its ports.
In a statement carried by Iranian state media outlet IRIB, the military’s central command Khatam Al-Anbiya said that if “the invading US military continues blockading, banditry, and piracy in the region, they should be certain that they will face a response from Iran’s powerful armed forces”.
“We are ready and determined, while monitoring the behaviour and movements of enemies,” it added.
In Lebanon, where a separate ceasefire agreement is supposed to be in place, Israeli strikes killed six people yesterday.
With reporting from AFP
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