New Delhi, Updated 02:00 AM Apr 26, 2026 IST
President Donald Trump called off a planned Pakistan visit by envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff for talks with Iran, Fox News reported Saturday, after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left Islamabad before the US delegation arrived, effectively scuttling a second round of negotiations.
Iran had earlier indicated it would not meet directly with the US negotiating team. During his visit to Islamabad, Araghchi held meetings with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohd Ishaq Dar, and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir. Iranian officials said Araghchi set out Tehran’s principled position on the latest developments related to the ceasefire and the complete end of the war, and Pakistani leaders expressed confidence that the negotiating process could continue.
Araghchi was also expected to present a new response to a US peace proposal. On Friday he posted on X that he was embarking on a timely tour of Islamabad, Muscat and Moscow to coordinate with partners on bilateral and regional matters and that neighbours were a priority. Earlier, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said no meeting with the US was planned and that Iran’s observations would be conveyed to Pakistani authorities.
Diplomats from Tehran and Washington had been due to meet in Islamabad with Pakistan facilitating talks over the weekend. This week, Trump announced an indefinite extension of a previously declared two-week ceasefire between the parties.
Tensions rose elsewhere as Tehran and Washington traded warnings. Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters warned, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, that a US blockade of Iranian ports would draw a response from Iran’s armed forces and said the country had greater readiness and capability than before to defend its sovereignty, territory and national interests.
In Washington, Senator Roger Wicker, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, urged an end to negotiations and a return to military strikes, writing on X that talks with Iran’s rulers were over and calling for efforts to degrade Iran’s conventional military capabilities and eliminate any remaining elements of its nuclear programme.
