President Trump on Saturday called off a trip by two of his top negotiators to Islamabad, Pakistan, just before they were set to leave for talks about a potential deal to end the war in Iran. “I’ve told my people a little while ago, they were getting ready to leave, and I said, ‘Nope, you’re not making an 18-hour flight to go there. We have all the cards,’” Mr.
Trump said in a statement. “They can call us anytime they want, but you’re not going to be making any more 18-hour flights to sit around talking about nothing.” Steve Witkoff, the special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, had been scheduled to travel to Pakistan on Saturday, along with top aides to Vice President JD Vance. Officials in Pakistan have been mediating between the United States and Iran to try to end more than a month of war in the Middle East.
The cancellation of the trip is the latest sign that Iran and the United States are far from reaching a deal to end the war. A previous trip to Islamabad by Mr. Vance proved unsuccessful, and the Americans appear no closer to achieving the administration’s political goals, including convincing Iran to turn over its nuclear stockpile and curtail its future program.
The two sides are also locked in a stalemate over control of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil supply flows. When asked what had changed between Friday and Saturday, Mr. Trump told reporters on Saturday that Iran gave the United States a “paper that should have been better,” presumably referring to a peace proposal.
After he canceled his envoys’ trip, he said Iran made a new offer that was “much better” but still short of U.S. demands. “They offered a lot but not enough,” Mr. Trump said, without giving details.
Who knows what is rattling around in the imbecile’s rapidly degenerating brain, but my guess is that this is all kayfabe, and he’s going to claim some tremendous diplomatic victory, while accepting something much worse than the status quo ante. Also a man gets used to anything as the great Russian novelists point out, but we really shouldn’t get used to the absurdity of Jared Kushner being the chief negotiator for the United States in this or any other situation, but especially this one. Leaving aside his utter lack of qualifications other than sharing a bed with the president’s favorite daughter, Kushner is an all but open bought and paid for creature of the Saudi government.
Nobody who didn’t live through this time is going to be able to believe what it was like. I mean I’m living through it and I don’t believe it either.