by Sharon Rondeau
(Apr. 25, 2026) — As of Saturday morning, Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Special Envoy for Peace Jared Kushner were scheduled to fly to Islamabad, Pakistan for a second round of in-person negotiations with the rogue nation of Iran, which in the midst of the United States’ destruction of its military, theocracy and economy over the last seven weeks, has thus far refused to abandon its nuclear weapons development.
According to President Trump after the launch of “Operation Epic Fury” on February 28 along with Israel, Iran was readying to launch a massive attack on the Jewish state and sole democracy in the region.
At 2:19 p.m., President Trump announced on Truth Social he canceled the trip, citing a leadership vacuum within the regime, “too much time wasted on traveling” and “too much work!”
“Nobody knows who is in charge, including them,” Trump elucidated. “Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!”
Islamabad discussions taking place on April 11 were reportedly positive but fell short of a peace agreement and Iran’s pledge to abandon its nuclear weapons program, a key demand of the Trump administration.
Last Monday, Witkoff, Kushner and Vice President JD Vance were scheduled to resume negotiations in Islamabad, but that trip, pushed to Tuesday, was ultimately canceled after Iran refused to participate over Trump’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz which Iran itself closed to shipping traffic on March 12.
“I’ll deal with whoever runs the show,” Trump told a reporter on the tarmac earlier Saturday before returning to Washington, DC for the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner, the first he will attend. “They are fighting with each other; there’s tremendous infighting; they’re probably fighting for leadership; in many cases, I think they’re fighting not to be the leader because we knocked out two levels of leaders. I’ll deal with whoever I have to, but there’s no reason to wait two days, have people traveling for 16, 17 hours. We’re not doing it that way; we’ll do it — when they want, they can call me…”
“…What changed from yesterday to today?” a reporter asked.
“Nothing. It’s just that they gave us a paper that should have been better, and interestingly — immediately, when I canceled it, within ten minutes we got a new paper that was much better.”
He concluded his remarks with, “That whole deal is not complicated. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon; it’s very simple.”