Everyone knew this was going to be a waste of time when Trump first announced it.
As the BBC reported, the Iranians never agreed with meet with anyone from the United States:
Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and the US president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are heading to Pakistan for peace talks with Iran on Saturday morning, the White House has said.
“The Iranians want to talk,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, adding that US Vice-President JD Vance was “on standby” to travel if the talks proved successful.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei said he and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had arrived in Islamabad on Friday evening, and Araghchi would be meeting “Pakistani high-level officials”.
He added that: “No meeting is planned to take place between Iran and the US. Iran’s observations would be conveyed to Pakistan.”
Ahead of Baqaei’s comments, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tehran had a chance to make a “good deal”, stressing that “all they have to do is abandon a nuclear weapon and in meaningful and verifiable ways”.
Now Trump has called it off:
Trump told Fox News in a phone call this morning that he has called off Witkoff and Kushner’s trip to Pakistan to meet with the Iranians.
“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,” Trump reportedly said in his conversation with Fox News reporter Aishah Hasnie.
This comes after news that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left Islamabad following meetings with Pakistani officials. Araghchi had previously said that no meetings with the U.S. had been planned in Islamabad.
