Shortly before noon on Saturday, Fox News’ Aishah Hasnie reported that President Donald Trump “just told me over the phone he has unilaterally cancelled Witkoff and Kushner’s trip to Pakistan to meet with the Iranians.” Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have been carrying on the on-again-off-again negotiations with what remains of the Islamic Republic’s leadership, in hopes of striking some deal that would definitively end the mullahs’ nuclear threat.
Hasnie’s assertion that Trump called off the talks “unilaterally” is a bit of a stretch, as Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had already left Islamabad before Witkoff and Kushner had been scheduled to arrive. And so in calling off their trip, Trump was simply recognizing reality.
The president explained: “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. 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’.”
Shortly thereafter, Trump added:
I just cancelled the trip of my representatives going is Islamabad, Pakistan, to meet with the Iranians. Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work! Besides which, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their “leadership.” Nobody knows who is in charge, including them. Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!! President DONALD J. TRUMP
All this follows Trump’s announcement from last Tuesday, when he postponed the resumption of military action until the talks could run their course:
Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal. I have therefore directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other. President DONALD J. TRUMP
The latest call-off of the talks does not, of course, necessarily mean that a resumption of military action is imminent, or even in the offing at all. The situation at the moment is extremely volatile, as it is not even clear who exactly is in charge in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and there seem to be at least two factions: fanatics from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who want to pursue war with the U.S. and Israel even if it means the fiery destruction of the nation, and a more pragmatic group that appears to include Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and others among the most prominent survivors from the prewar regime.
Behind both factions is the mysterious figure of Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late supreme leader and his putative successor. Mojtaba, however, still has not actually been seen or heard since he was made supreme leader, and was reportedly left disfigured and crippled from the airstrike that killed his father. It is also possible, given this regime’s long record of duplicity, that Mojtaba Khamenei is actually dead, and that regime officials are pretending that he is still alive and directing the nation’s affairs from his hospital bed because he gives them some claim to legitimacy, however tenuous.
Trump likely continues to hold out hope that the Iranians will return to the negotiating table. As recently as last Tuesday, he asserted that “Iran can get themselves at a very good footing. If they make a deal, they can make themselves into a strong nation again, a wonderful nation again.”
Yet even after the Iranian leadership and military has taken a severe pounding, there is no indication whatsoever that if the Islamic Republic of Iran becomes “a strong nation again, a wonderful nation again,” it will also be a friend to the United States. If the current regime, whoever is actually in charge of it, remains in power, it will simply be a strong and wonderful jihadi rogue state.
Related: Iran’s New Supreme Leader Surfaces (Sort of) With a Chilling Message
That orientation is fundamentally anti-American. It should not be forgotten that in a nationally televised address in November 2023, the late Khamenei explained, “The situation between America and Iran is this: When you chant ‘Death to America!’ it is not just a slogan – it is a policy. I have stated the reasons previously. For many years, from the 1940s to the 1970s – that is 30 years – the Americans did everything they could do against the Iranian nation. They hit Iran in any way they could – financially, economically, politically, scientifically, and morally.”
Despite the fact that this was not true then and isn’t true even now, the Islamic Republic remains determined to hit us back, one way or another, in any way that the opportunity arises to do so. The Iranian leadership will keep looking for that opportunity.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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