While the much anticipated Iran-US talks failed to takeoff and Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi left Islamabad on Saturday even before the US envoys departed for Pakistani capital city, Araghchi said it remained to be seen whether the United States was “truly serious” about diplomacy, after he completed a visit to Pakistan where he met with senior officials. Track updates on Iran US war
The Associated Press quoted two Pakistani officials saying that Araghchi left Pakistan without meeting US officials.
In a post on X after leaving Islamabad, Araghchi said he had “shared Iran’s position concerning (a) workable framework to permanently end the war”, but he had “yet to see if the US is truly serious about diplomacy”.
Trump calls off US envoys’ Pakistan trip
Soon after Araghchi left from Islamabad for Muscat, US President Donald Trump said Washington would no longer be sending envoys to Islamabad for talks. The Iranian foreign minister led a delegation to Pakistan on Friday amid chatter about second round of talks with the US, though Iran maintained that it had no meeting had been planned with the delegation from Washington in Pakistan.
“I just cancelled the trip of my representatives going is Islamabad,” Trump said shortly after telling Fox News that he’d instructed US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner not to go and that Iran ‘can call us anytime’.
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“Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work!” he wrote in a post on his Truth Social.
In a brief phone interview, Trump told Fox News that he told Witkoff and Kushner, “You’re not going to be making any more 18-hour flights to sit around talking about nothing.”
Abbas Araghchi’s Pakistan visit
Araghchi earlier on Saturday met Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief Asim Munir, and conveyed Iran’s demands and reservations regarding US terms to the Pakistani side. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmael Baqaei earlier wrote on X that “no meeting is planned to take place between Iran and the US.” He added that Pakistani officials would pass messages between both sides.
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The Iranian foreign minister said Tehran would engage with Pakistan’s mediation efforts “until a result is achieved” as Iran said any talks would be indirect and that Pakistani officials would convey messages.
The first round of talks between Iran and US was held in Pakistan on April 11 and 12 and lasted over 20 hours, the highest-level direct talks between the longtime adversaries since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. However, the talks collapsed as the two sides failed to reach a deal with Iran’s nuclear programme being one of the main sticking points.
