New Delhi, Updated At: 02:00 AM Apr 26, 2026 IST
US President Donald Trump called off a planned Pakistan visit by envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff for talks with Iran, Fox News reported on Saturday, after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi departed Islamabad before the US delegation’s arrival, effectively derailing a second round of negotiations.
Iran had earlier said it would not meet directly with the US negotiating team in Pakistan. During his Islamabad visit, Araghchi met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Mohd Ishaq Dar, and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir. A statement from Araghchi said he had outlined Iran’s “principled position on the latest developments related to the ceasefire and the complete end of the war,” and noted that Sharif “expressed confidence” the negotiating process would continue.
Araghchi was also expected to present a fresh 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, saying “our neighbours are our priority.”
Earlier, Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said no meeting was planned with the US and that Iran’s observations would be conveyed to Pakistan.
Diplomats from Iran and the US had been expected to engage in talks facilitated by Pakistani officials in Islamabad over the weekend. Trump this week announced an indefinite extension of a previously declared two-week ceasefire between the sides.
Separately, Tehran and Washington traded warnings. Iran’s top military command, the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, warned on Saturday — as reported by the semi-official Tasnim news agency — that if the US continued a blockade of Iranian ports it would “face the response of Iran’s armed forces,” and said Iran had “greater authority and readiness than before to defend sovereignty, territory, and national interests.”
In the US, Senator Roger Wicker, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, urged an end to negotiations and a return to military strikes, posting on X that talks with Iran’s rulers were over and calling for efforts to “finish destroying Iran’s conventional military capabilities and eliminate any last remnants of their nuclear programme.”
