President Donald Trump has canceled a planned diplomatic mission to Pakistan, ordering his top envoys to stand down just hours after Iran's foreign minister departed Islamabad without breakthrough progress on ceasefire negotiations.
The abrupt reversal derailed what was meant to be a high-stakes push to revive indirect talks between Washington and Tehran. Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were set to travel to the Pakistani capital to maintain momentum in negotiations that have sputtered since preliminary rounds in Geneva last month ended without agreement.
"They can call us anytime they want," Trump told Fox News on Saturday, signaling a shift toward letting Tehran make the next move rather than pursuing active shuttle diplomacy through Islamabad.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had spent the previous days in Pakistan meeting with army leadership and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to outline Tehran's negotiating conditions. Pakistani officials said Araghchi departed Saturday evening after indicating Iran would continue engaging with Islamabad's mediation efforts "until a result is achieved," though all discussions were to remain indirect with Pakistan acting as an intermediary.
The diplomatic reversal comes as the broader conflict grinds on with mounting economic consequences. An open-ended ceasefire has suppressed active fighting, but Mideast tensions remain volatile. Iran has attacked commercial shipping in recent days while the US maintains a blockade on Iranian ports and has ordered military forces to "shoot and kill" small boats suspected of laying mines near critical shipping lanes.
Control of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of global oil passes, has become a flashpoint. Iran's chokehold on that waterway has sent Brent crude prices soaring to nearly 50 percent above pre-conflict levels, disrupting shipments of oil, natural gas, fertilizer and other commodities worldwide. The bottleneck has rippled even to the Panama Canal, affecting maritime trade halfway around the globe.
Saturday brought small signs of normalization. Iran resumed commercial airline flights from Tehran's international airport for the first time since the war began, with planes scheduled to depart for Istanbul, Muscat and Medina. The country had partially reopened its airspace earlier this month due to the ceasefire.
Broader efforts to lock down stability across the region have shown mixed results. Trump announced late Thursday that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to extend their ceasefire by three weeks, though the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah has remained outside Washington's diplomatic framework.
The human toll continues climbing. At least 3,375 people have died in Iran, over 2,490 in Lebanon where fighting with Israel escalated after the initial Iran conflict, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen across Gulf Arab states. Military casualties include 15 Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, 13 US service members in the region and six UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.
The canceled envoy trip underscores the fragility of negotiations that remain tethered to deep mistrust. Iranian officials have openly questioned how they can negotiate in good faith with a US administration after earlier discussions over nuclear matters collapsed, followed by American and Israeli military strikes.
Author James Rodriguez: "Trump pivoting from active mediation to a 'call us if you're serious' posture signals his frustration with the diplomatic pace, but it risks letting a volatile situation drift without guardrails."
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