Donald Trump told Fox News on Saturday that US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will no longer travel to Pakistan for talks with Iran.
Trump said the trip was not worthwhile, claiming that the United States “holds all the cards” in the war and did not need to send a delegation on an 18-hour trip for fruitless discussions. He added that Iran is free to communicate with Washington at any time, stressing that his team will not undertake such long trips “to sit and talk about nothing.”
Here is the Fox News report:
President Trump just told me by phone that he unilaterally canceled Witkoff and Kushner’s trip to Pakistan to meet with the Iranians. “I told my people a while ago that they were getting ready to leave, and I told them: No, you’re not going to take 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 take another 18-hour flight to sit and talk about nothing.”
It all seemed to fall apart on Friday, but the market either didn’t care, didn’t understand what was happening, or missed something else.
As far as I can see, we have reached a stalemate and the United States is blocking Iranian ships and Iran is blocking everyone’s ships. Trump and his team were touting all tankers headed to the United States to pick up oil, but they would find out very quickly that prices would rise as supplies were withdrawn.
The next question is: What breaks the deadlock? Could there be negotiations or are more bombs coming?
We still have more than 24 hours before markets reopen, but for now, that’s bullish for oil and bearish for almost everything else.
Update: Now Trump himself has come out with a similar statement.
In equally troubling news, Netanyahu issued a statement saying he had instructed the army to attack Hezbollah targets in Lebanon by force.
