What the White House announced
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Friday 24 April 2026 that US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner would travel to Islamabad on Saturday morning for talks with Iran mediated by Pakistan, Reuters reported. “Steve and Jared will be heading to Pakistan tomorrow to hear the Iranians out. We hope progress will be made and we hope that positive developments will come from this meeting,” Leavitt said. The administration had seen “some progress” from the Iranian side over the past couple of days, she added, without elaborating.
Vice President JD Vance, who led a first round of unsuccessful talks in Islamabad earlier in the month, was on standby to join the new round if it proved productive, Leavitt said. Trump had unilaterally extended a two-week ceasefire with Iran on Tuesday at the eleventh hour to allow more time for negotiations, Reuters noted. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was expected in Islamabad on Friday to discuss proposals for restarting talks, with Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, positioned as the lead backchannel.
Pakistan as the venue and the cancellation
Pakistan’s military and civilian leadership had spent the days leading up to 24 April preparing for a fresh round. Al Jazeera English’s account published on 25 April confirmed that Araghchi had departed Islamabad by Saturday morning after meeting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Field Marshal Munir. On X, Araghchi said he had shared “Iran’s position concerning workable framework to permanently end the war on Iran” with Pakistani officials, adding: “Have yet to see if the U.S. is truly serious about diplomacy.”
In a phone interview with Fox News on 25 April, Trump cancelled Witkoff’s and Kushner’s planned 18-hour flight to Islamabad, telling Fox: “I said, ‘Nope, you’re not making an 18-hour flight to go there. We have all the cards. They can call us anytime they want.’” Iran’s state-run IRNA later reported that Araghchi was “scheduled to visit Pakistan again after completing his trip to Oman and before travelling to Russia,” with part of his delegation due to rejoin him in Islamabad on Sunday night after consultations in Tehran.
Why it matters
For Pakistan, the episode is the most concrete iteration yet of its bid to position itself as the indispensable mediator in the two-month US–Iran war. Field Marshal Munir’s direct line to both Tehran and Washington, the diplomatic traffic through Dar, and Islamabad’s hosting of successive rounds give Rawalpindi a profile in Gulf and US capitals that the September 2025 Board of Peace membership alone did not. For energy markets, the cancellation highlights how close the Strait of Hormuz standoff remains to a renewed combat phase. Asked by Axios whether the cancelled trip meant a resumption of hostilities, Trump replied: “No. It doesn’t mean that. We haven’t thought about it yet.”
What is still uncertain
Whether Witkoff and Kushner will travel in the days ahead, and whether Araghchi’s Sunday-night return to Islamabad will produce a second in-person round, remains open. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Saturday it had no intention of ending its effective blocking of Hormuz, according to AFP reporting cited by Al Jazeera English, leaving the energy-market pressure that brought Iran and the United States back to Pakistan unresolved at the editorial cutoff.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a synthesis of published material, not eyewitness reporting. Sources were reviewed on 2026-04-24.
- Primary source — Reuters: "Witkoff and Kushner headed to Pakistan for Iran talks, White House says"24 April 2026 · Wire report on the Karoline Leavitt announcement, the Witkoff and Kushner Saturday departure, JD Vance's standby role and the earlier Araghchi arrival in Islamabad.
- Independent source — Al Jazeera English: "Trump cancels US envoys' trip after Iran's Araghchi leaves Pakistan"25 April 2026 · Same-night account of the Trump reversal, Araghchi's meetings with Sharif, Dar and Munir, the IRNA read-out on his planned Sunday return, IRGC Hormuz posture and the Rosiland Jordan on-the-record analysis from Washington.