Iran War Live Updates: Trump Calls Off Witkoff and Kushner’s Travel to Pakistan for Peace Talks

Iran war: Trump cancels Pakistan peace talks for Witkoff and Kushner

Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat

President Trump scrapped a planned diplomatic mission to Pakistan that would have sent Middle East envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to explore Iran cease-fire options.

The White House announced the reversal late Tuesday after consultations with national security adviser Mike Waltz and CIA director John Ratcliffe.

The aborted trip derails the first visible attempt by the Trump administration to sound out regional players on ending the three-week air campaign that has killed at least 847 people across Iran and brought missile barrages against Israel and Gulf bases. Islamabad had offered to host discreet talks with Iranian officials who signaled willingness to discuss terms, according to two Pakistani diplomats who requested anonymity.

Trump told reporters at the White House that “conditions are not right” for negotiations and blamed Tehran for “playing for time while they rebuild their missile stockpiles.” He added that any future diplomacy would require “complete verifiable shutdown” of Iran’s nuclear facilities, a demand Tehran has rejected since 2022.

The decision exposes splits inside the administration. Witkoff, who helped broker the 2025 Israel-Lebanon maritime deal, argued that even exploratory talks could test Iran’s intentions and reduce escalation risks, according to a senior Pentagon official briefed on the discussions. Kushner, architect of the 2020 Abraham Accords, warned that abandoning the channel could push Tehran closer to China and Russia for military support.

Secretary of state Marco Rubio backed the cancellation, telling the Senate foreign relations committee that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard fired 43 ballistic missiles at Israeli cities since Sunday. “Negotiating while their forces launch daily rocket attacks rewards aggression,” Rubio said. He provided no evidence that Iranian regular forces, rather than allied militias, carried out the strikes.

Iran’s foreign ministry issued a terse response. Spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Washington “closes doors then complains no one answers their calls” and reiterated that any talks must address sanctions relief first. Iranian state television broadcast footage of rallies in Tabriz and Shiraz where demonstrators burned American and Israeli flags, a ritual that had paused during previous diplomatic openings in 2023.

Gulf markets slid on the news. Dubai’s main index fell 2.1 percent and Brent crude surged past $93 a barrel before settling at $91.70, its highest close since October. Traders cited fears that cancelled diplomacy could lengthen shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, through which 21 percent of global oil supplies flow. Japanese refiners told Reuters they have already cut Iranian crude imports by 38 percent this month.

Israeli officials privately welcomed the US move. Defense minister Israel Katz told local radio that “talks that begin under fire usually end with more fire” and pledged to continue air strikes until Iran halts uranium enrichment at Fordow and Natanz facilities. Satellite images released Tuesday by Planet Labs showed new construction at both sites, though analysts could not determine whether enrichment activity had increased.

China’s foreign ministry appealed for restraint. spokesperson Lin Jian urged “all parties to return to dialogue” and offered Beijing as a neutral venue, repeating a proposal first made when hostilities erupted on April 3. European Union high representative Kaja Kallas said the bloc maintains contact with Tehran through the Swiss embassy in Washington but conceded “there is no active mediation process right now.”

The aborted mission carries domestic political risks for Trump. Polls released Monday by CNN and Quinnipiac show 52 percent of Americans disapprove of his handling of the crisis, the highest negative rating since he took office. Democratic senators demanded a classified briefing on the cancellation, with Virginia’s Mark Warner warning “diplomatic paralysis only helps hardliners in Tehran.”

Background

Trump authorized the current air campaign on April 4 after Iran’s proxy militias in Iraq killed 17 US contractors at a base near Erbil. The operation, code-named Iron Saber, has involved more than 240 airstrikes against missile depots, radar sites and drone facilities across eight Iranian provinces. Tehran responded by unleashing militias in Syria, Iraq and Yemen against American and allied targets, creating the widest Middle East violence since the 2003 Iraq invasion.

Efforts to open back-channel talks have surfaced repeatedly. Omani officials mediated at least two rounds of indirect messages in April, according to regional diplomats, but collapsed when Washington insisted any truce begin with Iranian acceptance of international nuclear inspectors. Pakistan’s offer to host emerged last week after army chief General Asim Munir visited Tehran and conveyed what Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi described as “flexibility on phased verification.”

What’s Next

Witkoff continues to push for a limited deal freezing uranium enrichment above 60 percent in exchange for partial sanctions relief on medical and agricultural goods, a plan Rubio’s State Department has not endorsed. Congressional authorization for wider military action expires May 15 under the War Powers Act, setting up a legislative fight that could constrain Trump’s options if ground operations are proposed.

Trump’s cancellation signals harder US demands before any summit, leaving regional capitals to watch whether Tehran offers fresh concessions or retaliates with expanded militia attacks across the Gulf.