

Aborted Pakistan trip leaves Trump with tough choices on Iran talks
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—President Trump scrapped a trip by U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan for talks with Iran, leaving himself tough choices over how to force Iran to make concessions the White House wants to strike a deal.Trump said on Saturday that he had decided to cancel the trip after receiving an offer from Iran that fell short of the White House’s expectations.
“We’re not going to spend 15 hours in airplanes all the time, going back and forth, to be given a document that was not good enough,” he said.He added that the Iranians had sent a much better offer 10 minutes after he canceled the trip, saying it involved Iran not having a nuclear weapon as part of a deal.Witkoff and Kushner had been expected to travel to Islamabad for a potential meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, but U.S. and Iranian officials say the two sides remain far apart on issues such as the U.S.
blockade, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and Tehran’s nuclear program.“It remains to be seen whether the United States really has a serious will to advance diplomacy,” Araghchi told Iran’s official IRNA news agency. He held talks with mediators in Pakistan on Saturday before departing to travel to Oman and Russia.If Araghchi concludes a deal is possible after consulting the mediators, both sides could still meet in the coming days, said an Iranian diplomat and other people briefed on the effort.The deadlock over talks leaves Trump with uncomfortable choices.
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