Trump sends Witkoff and Kushner to Pakistan as U.S. and Iran test another path to talks

Washington and Tehran moved back toward another diplomatic test on Friday night, but they did so with the kind of hedging that has defined this conflict from the start. The White House said Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would travel to Pakistan on Saturday morning for another round of talks linked to the Iran war, while Iranian officials signaled that Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was already in Islamabad and would be meeting Pakistani leaders rather than confirming a face-to-face session with the Americans.

That split-screen matters. The U.S. side is presenting the trip as evidence that Iran wants to re-engage, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying Tehran had shown enough movement for President Donald Trump to dispatch two close envoys to hear the Iranians out. Iranian messaging, by contrast, has been more guarded, stressing coordination with Pakistani interlocutors and leaving unclear whether the weekend will produce a direct encounter or another round of messages passed through intermediaries.

The meeting track is opening under pressure rather than in calm. CBS reported that there had been more trouble in the Strait of Hormuz even though the ceasefire with Iran was already more than two weeks old, and the BBC reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was still warning that the U.S. blockade around Iranian ports was expanding in scope. That means the diplomacy is not beginning from a clean reset. It is beginning while both sides are still trying to shape leverage in public and at sea.Top Trump envoys head to Pakistan for more peace talks with Irancbsnews.com·SecondaryWatch CBS News Top Trump envoys head to Pakistan for more peace talks with Iran Just over two weeks into the ceasefire with Iran, there was more trouble in the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, Iran's foreign minister arrived in Pakistan ahead of potential face-to-face talks with the U.S. Ed O'Keefe has more details. View CBS News In CBS News App Open Chrome Safari Continue

From the White House view, the trip lets Trump keep two messages alive at once. One is that the administration is still willing to negotiate if Iran moves on the nuclear file in a way Washington considers meaningful and verifiable. The other is that the United States does not believe it needs to negotiate from weakness, because military and economic pressure remain in place and can be tightened if talks fail. That dual message has been repeated this week by Leavitt and Hegseth, and it is consistent with Trump's broader habit of mixing invitations to dealmaking with reminders that he believes the other side is under greater strain.Witkoff und Kushner reisen nach Pakistan – doch Irans Aussenminister will nicht verhandelnatson.ch·UnverifiedIm Ringen um eine Beendigung des Iran-Kriegs reisen der US-Sondergesandte Steve Witkoff und der Schwiegersohn von US-Präsident Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, nach US-Angaben nach Pakistan zu Verhandlungen mit Vertretern Teherans. Beide fliegen am Samstagmorgen (Ortszeit Washington) ab, wie US-Regierungssprecherin Karoline Leavitt auf Fox News sagte. Die Iraner hätten darum gebeten, persönlich sprechen, sagte sie wenig später vor Reportern.

From Tehran's perspective, the careful wording is just as revealing. Iranian officials have not denied the broader diplomatic channel, but they have resisted validating the White House version of events in full. The BBC reported that Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said no U.S.-Iran meeting was planned in Islamabad and that Iran's positions would instead be conveyed to Pakistan. Watson, citing Iranian and Pakistani channels, reported that Araghchi was expected to coordinate with mediators and discuss a counterproposal rather than step directly into a formal session with the American delegation.Witkoff und Kushner reisen nach Pakistan – doch Irans Aussenminister will nicht verhandelnatson.ch·UnverifiedIm Ringen um eine Beendigung des Iran-Kriegs reisen der US-Sondergesandte Steve Witkoff und der Schwiegersohn von US-Präsident Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, nach US-Angaben nach Pakistan zu Verhandlungen mit Vertretern Teherans. Beide fliegen am Samstagmorgen (Ortszeit Washington) ab, wie US-Regierungssprecherin Karoline Leavitt auf Fox News sagte. Die Iraner hätten darum gebeten, persönlich sprechen, sagte sie wenig später vor Reportern.

Pakistan's role therefore looks less like a backdrop and more like the central mechanism keeping the process alive. The earlier round of talks in Islamabad did not produce a settlement, and another expected visit by a U.S. delegation had slipped earlier this week when Iranian participation looked uncertain. By sending Witkoff and Kushner anyway, the White House is signaling that it still sees value in Pakistan as a venue that both sides can use without making larger political concessions in public before they know whether a breakthrough is possible.Trump's envoys Witkoff and Kushner to fly to Pakistan for Iran talksbbc.com·SecondaryDonald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and the US president's son-in-law Jared Kushner are heading to Pakistan for peace talks with Iran on Saturday morning, the White House has said. "The Iranians want to talk," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, adding that US Vice-President JD Vance was "on standby" to travel if the talks proved successful.

The personnel choices also deserve attention. JD Vance, who had led an earlier U.S. delegation, is not making this trip, though U.S. officials say he remains on standby if events move quickly. Instead Trump is relying on Witkoff, his special envoy, and Kushner, his son-in-law and longtime trusted adviser on Middle East diplomacy. That suggests the administration wants a team that is tightly tied to Trump's own instincts and can report back to him directly rather than a broader interagency group that might project a more formal process than the current moment can sustain.Witkoff und Kushner reisen nach Pakistan – doch Irans Aussenminister will nicht verhandelnatson.ch·UnverifiedIm Ringen um eine Beendigung des Iran-Kriegs reisen der US-Sondergesandte Steve Witkoff und der Schwiegersohn von US-Präsident Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, nach US-Angaben nach Pakistan zu Verhandlungen mit Vertretern Teherans. Beide fliegen am Samstagmorgen (Ortszeit Washington) ab, wie US-Regierungssprecherin Karoline Leavitt auf Fox News sagte. Die Iraner hätten darum gebeten, persönlich sprechen, sagte sie wenig später vor Reportern.

Supporters of the administration will argue this is exactly the right way to handle an adversary that responds mainly to pressure. They will say the combination of blockade pressure, sanctions threats and a narrow diplomatic opening gives Washington the best chance of extracting concessions that previous administrations could not secure. Skeptics will answer that the mixed public signals from Washington and Tehran show how fragile the channel still is, and that talks launched under coercive conditions can collapse as soon as either side decides the optics of compromise are too costly at home.

There is also a wider strategic question behind the immediate choreography. The Strait of Hormuz remains a live source of market anxiety, and both American and Iranian statements continue to link diplomatic progress to shipping, energy flows and the broader question of whether the war can truly be wound down. If Pakistan can help produce even a narrow procedural understanding, markets and regional capitals will treat that as meaningful. If the weekend yields only another round of conflicting statements, the result will reinforce the sense that the ceasefire has merely paused escalation rather than resolved anything underneath it.

For now, the most honest reading is that both sides are probing for advantage while trying not to own the political cost of appearing too eager. Washington wants to show that Iran came asking. Tehran wants to show that it is talking through partners, not capitulating to an American script. Pakistan, caught in the middle, is trying to keep a channel open long enough for both governments to decide whether a limited deal is better than a prolonged war of pressure, disruption and mixed signals. That makes this weekend important, but not yet decisive.

One reason the episode matters beyond the immediate headlines is that it exposes how narrow the margin for miscalculation has become. A White House statement suggesting direct talks can raise expectations in financial markets and allied capitals, while an Iranian statement denying that a direct meeting is even scheduled can just as quickly cool them again. In that environment, even procedural disagreement over who is meeting whom, and under what formula, becomes part of the substantive contest rather than a minor detail.

The result is a familiar but consequential pattern: each camp is trying to preserve room for compromise without looking as if it yielded first. For Washington, that means saying the Iranians reached out while keeping coercive tools visible. For Tehran, it means showing up in Islamabad, working through Pakistan, and still insisting publicly that no American-Iranian meeting has been locked in. That may frustrate anyone hoping for a dramatic announcement this weekend, but it is also how serious adversaries often edge toward talks when trust is low and the political penalties for visible concessions are high.