US-Iran Talks in Pakistan Are Off for Now, Both Sides Say

UPDATE Apr 25, 2026 11:33 AM CDT

President Trump said Saturday he'd canceled the US delegation's trip to Pakistan for peace talks with Iran, whose foreign minister Abbas Araghchi had left Islamabad without meeting with Americans. In a brief phone interview with Fox News, Trump said he told Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, "You're not going to be making any more 18 hour flights to sit around talking about nothing," the AP reports. Shortly after Abbas Araghchi touched down in Islamabad, the Iranian government said his trip would include no direct negotiations with US representatives. The Iranian state news agency IRNA reported that he did meet with Pakistani officials, including Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, before leaving, per NBC News.

Apr 24, 2026 2:20 PM CDT

Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff will represent the US in negotiations with Iran's top diplomat in Pakistan this weekend, White House aides said Friday, without Vice President JD Vance in attendance. Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law, and Steve Witkoff, a real estate executive, are to travel to Islamabad on Saturday, the New York Times reports. Iranian state media said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived there late Friday, per the AP. "The president, the vice president, the secretary of state will be waiting here in the United States for updates," said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary.

Leavitt said Kushner and Witkoff are going "to hear the Iranians out." Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Trump's national security team are on standby to fly to Pakistan if needed, Leavitt said. Iran's top negotiator, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, also is sitting out the talks for now, per the Washington Post. Senior Iranian officials said Araghchi plans to deliver a new written reply to a recent US peace proposal, per the Times.