Trump says he canceled US negotiators’ trip to Pakistan for Iran talks

[0:00] Let's bring you some breaking news, and the US President Donald Trump has just posted on social media, on his Truth Social account, saying, [0:07] I just cancelled the trip of my representatives going, is Islamabad, I think it means to Islamabad, Pakistan, to meet with the Iranians. [0:19] Too much time wasted on travelling, too much work. [0:23] Besides which, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their leadership. [0:29] Nobody knows who is in charge, including them. [0:32] Also, we have all the cards. They have none. [0:37] If they want to talk, all they have to do is call. [0:45] Let's go to Osama bin Javed. He's live for us from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. [0:49] So looking at that latest Truth Social, where does that leave the mediation effort by Pakistan, [0:55] that one assumes they were trying to arrange some kind of meeting between the two sides? [1:01] Yes, Sami, we have just read it together, as you mentioned it on the air, [1:09] that President Donald Trump has essentially cancelled the trip that the White House had just advertised about 24 hours ago, [1:16] in reaction to which the Iranians had said there is no request that they have made, [1:21] they're not going to talk to the Americans, and they will only speak to them once the blockade is lifted, [1:26] as per the conditions which were set in the first round. [1:30] Remember how the first round ended? [1:31] Well, J.D. Vance, who was supposed to carry on with the negotiations, [1:35] in the middle of them after 21 hours, got up and left and said, [1:40] this is our best and final offer, and the Iranians take it or leave it. [1:45] And then you saw all that happened in the background. [1:48] So now this statement, coming from the U.S. president, [1:51] essentially, again, just pours cold water on all of the hope that there is a diplomatic way out of this. [1:59] As we've been reporting in the last week, [2:01] there's been a multitude of efforts that have been made by various parties, [2:06] spearheaded by Pakistan, where these talks were supposed to happen. [2:09] Again, we heard from the Iranian visiting delegation [2:13] that the Iranians are going to stand by the rules that they have set for these negotiations, [2:19] the 10 points that were agreed upon between them and the United States, [2:23] and they're willing to come back to the table if the United States abides by them. [2:28] And then there's the sticking point. [2:30] Why did we get here? [2:31] Well, in the last week, when the ceasefire was extended by the U.S. government, [2:36] the Iranians opened the Strait of Hormuz, [2:38] but the Americans insisted they do not want to lift the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz [2:42] that they have implemented. [2:44] And the U.S. president said, again, that they have all the cards. [2:47] So it appears that diplomacy, which had so much hope, is again taking a backseat. [2:53] What does this actually mean? [2:54] Well, we'll have to wait and see, because this has just come now. [2:57] I was speaking to some of the reporters who have been texting and calling President Donald Trump, [3:01] and some of them who the president had said should stay in Islamabad have been told to come home. [3:06] What are you hearing, Osama, from Pakistani mediators? [3:13] What's the bottom line here? [3:15] Does this mean that at least the current round of efforts [3:18] to try and arrange another face-to-face meeting are now, for now, at a dead end? [3:28] Well, it is still very early, because this has all happened in the last few minutes. [3:33] So we'll have to wait and see. [3:35] But officials, including diplomats, security officials, politicians and bureaucrats [3:39] that I've been speaking to, I don't think that they will see this as the end of the tunnel. [3:43] Because, you see, if you've been dealing with the presidency of U.S. President Donald J. Trump, [3:49] you expect there are going to be some grenades waiting for you in the diplomatic track. [3:54] So I imagine, and I will have to wait and see what they say, [3:57] that they will try to re-establish some contact. [4:00] As we've been told, that diplomacy is best done behind closed doors. [4:05] None of the details that have been discussed between them, the Pakistanis, the Americans [4:09] and the Iranians have not been made public. [4:13] We also know that the Pakistanis are not alone in this. [4:16] They've got the backing of Saudi Arabia, the Egyptians, the Turks. [4:20] This squad has been spearheading efforts. [4:22] We also know that in the last 24 hours, [4:24] the Emir of Qatar has made calls to the U.S. president, [4:27] urging him to stick to whatever their deal is about a ceasefire [4:33] and not going towards open conflict. [4:35] But on the same coin, you've been hearing from the Iranians [4:39] wary and warning about the U.S.'s track record. [4:43] Because the last two times, whether it was in Geneva or Oman, [4:46] when they were in negotiations, the U.S. and Israel have attacked them. [4:50] And it was through various Iranian officials that you were hearing [4:54] that they do not trust the United States. [4:57] The trust deficit is huge. [4:58] And this is something that the negotiators and the mediators [5:01] were trying to pull them through, [5:02] that this sea of trust that exists between them builds some bridges. [5:06] And I've been told that they were able to build some bridges. [5:09] That is why you are seeing all of those movements. [5:11] Again, the U.S. president has just said that he's calling it off. [5:15] Does that mean diplomacy is dead? [5:16] Does that mean that the Americans are pulling out? [5:19] Well, we'll have to wait and see [5:20] because the U.S. president makes a lot of statements [5:23] that have a lot of clarifications coming after it from the White House. [5:27] Okay, so Sam Ibn Javed updating us from Islamabad in Pakistan.