Iran talks stumble as Tehran’s top diplomat leaves Pakistan and Trump says he told envoys not to go

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The latest ceasefire talks between the United States and Iran appeared to fail Saturday before they began, as Tehran’s top diplomat left Pakistan and President Donald Trump soon afterward said he had told envoys not to travel to Islamabad.

The negotiations were meant to follow up on historic face-to-face talks earlier this month between the U.S., led by Vice President JD Vance, and Iran, led by parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf. But Iranian officials have questioned how they can trust the U.S. after its forces started blockading Iranian ports in response to Iran’s war grip on the Strait of Hormuz.

In announcing his decision Saturday, Trump told Fox News: “They can call us anytime they want.” The White House had said Friday that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would be going to Islamabad.

“Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work!” Trump later added on social media.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left Pakistan on Saturday evening, two Pakistani officials told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

“Shared Iran’s position concerning workable framework to permanently end the war on Iran. Have yet to see if the U.S. is truly serious about diplomacy,” Araghchi later said on social media.

Araghchi had met with Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif about what he called Iran’s red lines for negotiations. He said Tehran would engage with Pakistan’s mediation efforts “until a result is achieved.”

The open-ended ceasefire has paused most fighting, but the economic fallout grows with global shipments of oil, liquefied natural gas, fertilizer and other supplies disrupted by the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran had said any talks would be indirect

Pakistan has been trying to get U.S. and Iran back to the table since Trump this week announced an indefinite extension of the ceasefire, honoring Islamabad’s request for more diplomatic outreach.

Even before Saturday’s developments, Iran’s foreign ministry said any talks would be indirect and that Pakistani officials would convey messages. Tehran also noted that indirect talks with the U.S. last year and early this year over Tehran’s nuclear program, the issue long at the heart of tensions, ended with it being attacked by the U.S. and Israel, adding to its wariness.

The first round of talks in Pakistan lasted over 20 hours, the highest-level direct talks between the longtime adversaries since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Araghchi and Trump’s envoys held hours of indirect talks in Geneva on Feb. 27 but walked away without a deal. The next day, Israel and the United States started the war.

The standoff around the strait continues

The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, is still nearly 50% higher than when the war began because of Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes in peacetime.

Iran attacked three ships this week, while the U.S. maintains a blockade on Iranian ports. Trump has ordered the military to “shoot and kill” small boats that could be placing mines.

Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Saturday his country was sending minesweeper ships to the Mediterranean to help remove Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz once hostilities end.

The squeeze on shipments through the strait has rippled through global maritime trade, including through the Panama Canal nearly halfway around the world.

Also Saturday, Iran resumed commercial flights from Tehran’s international airport for the first time since the war began with U.S. and Israeli strikes two months ago. Flights were scheduled to depart for Istanbul, Oman’s capital of Muscat and the Saudi city of Medina, according to Iran’s state-run television.

A growing toll even as ceasefires hold

Since the war began, authorities say at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and at least 2,496 people in Lebanon, where new fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah broke out two days after the Iran war started.

Additionally, 23 people have been killed in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, 13 U.S. service members in the region and six members of the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon have been killed.

Trump announced Thursday that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks. Hezbollah has not participated in the Washington-brokered diplomacy.

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Ahmed reported from Islamabad and Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Bassem Mroue in Beirut; and Will Weissert in Washington contributed.