President Donald Trump has canceled a planned trip by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan for talks involving Iran, saying U.S. negotiators would no longer make long flights for discussions he described as unproductive.
Trump told Fox News White House correspondent Aishah Hasnie by phone that he called off the trip as the U.S. team was preparing to leave.
“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,’” Trump said, according to Hasnie’s post on X.
Trump said Iran could contact the United States directly if it wanted to continue discussions.
“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 was quoted as saying.
The cancellation came after the White House had said Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, and Kushner would travel to Islamabad on Saturday morning for Pakistan-mediated discussions involving Iran.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday that the Trump administration had seen “some progress” from the Iranian side in recent days, though she did not provide details, according to Fox News.
“Steve and Jared will be heading to Pakistan tomorrow to hear the Iranians out,” Leavitt said. “We hope progress will be made and we hope that positive developments will come from this meeting.”
Leavitt said Vice President JD Vance was not then planning to attend the discussions. She said Vance would remain on standby to travel to Islamabad if the talks advanced.
Earlier, Iran said it had no direct meeting planned with the United States, even as the U.S. envoys prepared to travel to Pakistan for another round of diplomacy tied to ending the war
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