President Trump on Saturday abruptly called off a trip by two of his top negotiators to Islamabad, Pakistan, the latest sign that Iran and the United States remain far apart on a deal to end the war.<\/p>\n
The president said he pulled his team from the flight shortly before takeoff, and he told the Iranians they could negotiate by telephone instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can call me,\u201d Mr. Trump told reporters. \u201cWe have all the cards. We\u2019ve won everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump\u2019s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president\u2019s son-in-law, had been scheduled to travel to Pakistan on Saturday, along with top aides to Vice President JD Vance, who participated in talks in the Pakistani capital earlier this month. Officials in Pakistan have been relaying messages between Iran and the United States to try to end around two months of war.<\/p>\n
But the Americans appear no closer to persuading Iran to turn over its stockpile of enriched uranium and curtail its nuclear program. The two sides are also in dispute over control of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world\u2019s oil supply normally flows. Mr. Vance\u2019s trip to Islamabad two weeks ago proved unsuccessful<\/a>, but an administration official said that the vice president remained on standby to re-engage in the talks.<\/p>\n When asked what had changed for him to call off the trip \u2014 it was never certain that the two sides would meet in person \u2014 Mr. Trump told reporters on Saturday that Iran gave the United States a \u201cpaper that should have been better,\u201d presumably referring to a peace proposal. After the president canceled the trip his envoys were set to make, he said that Iran made a new offer that was \u201cmuch better,\u201d but still short of U.S. demands.<\/p>\n \u201cThey offered a lot but not enough,\u201d Mr. Trump said, without giving details.<\/p>\n The president also complained that the Iranian officials scheduled to talk with his representatives were not high enough in rank.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not going to be traveling 15, 16 hours to have a meeting with people that nobody ever heard of,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cThey weren\u2019t meeting with the leader of the country. They were meeting with other people. And I said, \u2018We\u2019re just not going to do it.\u2019 Too much traveling, takes too long, too expensive. I\u2019m a very cost-conscious person.\u201d<\/p>\n The United States and Iran now appear to be engaged in a contest to see which side can outlast the other. Iran is aware that Mr. Trump is reluctant to restart the war during the run-up to the midterm elections, given its unpopularity in the United States and the toll it is taking on the global economy and energy markets. The White House is calculating that Iran\u2019s economy cannot withstand the U.S. blockade.<\/p>\n But there were some indications that Iran might have decided to scuttle talks this weekend.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump called off his envoys\u2019 trip after Iran\u2019s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, who had been in Islamabad for talks with Pakistani officials, left the country and traveled to Oman. Iranian officials had said on Friday that Mr. Araghchi was expecting to meet with U.S. negotiators in Pakistan. But after he arrived, a spokesman for Iran\u2019s foreign ministry said that no meeting had been planned.<\/p>\n After leaving Islamabad, Mr. Araghchi said in a social media post that he had shared with Pakistani officials Iran\u2019s position on a \u201cworkable framework to permanently end the war on Iran.\u201d He did not give details of the latest proposal. \u201cHave yet to see if the U.S. is truly serious about diplomacy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Later on Saturday, Iranian state media said that Mr. Araghchi would return to Islamabad after his visit to Oman. He will be joined on Sunday by other members of the Iranian delegation, who have traveled back to Tehran from Islamabad for further consultations on \u201cending the war.\u201d<\/p>\n In a phone call with Pakistan\u2019s prime minister on Saturday, Iran\u2019s president said that Tehran would not re-enter peace negotiations so long as the United States maintained its naval blockade of ships traveling to and from Iran\u2019s ports, according to Iranian state media.<\/p>\n Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, told the Pakistani leader that Iran would not enter negotiations \u201cunder pressure, threats and blockade,\u201d the reports in state media said. The Iranian president added that the U.S. blockade had sown distrust among Iran\u2019s leaders and contradicted the Trump administration\u2019s stated willingness to engage diplomatically.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, Mr. Trump unilaterally extended a cease-fire<\/a> between the United States and Iran that was about to expire, saying he wanted to give Tehran a chance to come up with a new proposal to end the war.<\/p>\n In a Truth Social post on his decision, the president repeated his contention that the Iranian government was divided, and argued that those disagreements were complicating talks.<\/p>\n