The President of the USA Donald Trump on Saturday abruptly canceled a planned visit by two of his administration’s negotiators to the Pakistani capital for diplomatic talks to end his war on Iran, complaining that the trip would be “too much work.”
President DESIGNATED his decision after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left Islamabad on Saturday, writing in a post on social networks that he had conveyed to Pakistani officials “Iran’s position regarding a workable framework to permanently end the war against Iran.” Araghchi added that he “yet to see if the US is really serious about diplomacy”.
Iranian officials he said repeatedly the last days they had no purpose of engaging in direct talks with The Trump administration this weekend as long as the US naval blockade remained in effect. Despite clear statements from Iran’s leadership, Trump The White House insisted that special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff will hold another round of direct negotiations with Iranian officials in Islamabad after earlier talks ended without an agreement.
“This has happened repeatedly: Trump claims Iranians are begging for talks, Iran says it’s false.” observed Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill. “The United States says Iran is lying, and then it becomes clear that Iran meant what it said.”
In an assessment published before Trump canceled his envoys’ trip, Scahill has written that “there is no doubt that it is the US that is seeking direct talks now, not Iran”.
“Iran still believes it is likely that the US and Israel will resume war and has shown that it is preparing new forms of retaliatory strikes and other actions, including in the Strait of Hormuz,” Scahill added. “Its military commanders have said that while the US has moved more military assets to the region during the ‘ceasefire,’ Tehran has also taken this period to prepare its weapons systems for more combat.”
Trump insisted Saturday that his administration holds “all the cards” and that Iran’s leadership is in turmoil. But Sina Toossi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, has written that “Trump cannot hide his great desperation for a deal.”
“So he invents ‘breaks’ in Tehran to explain the constant standing,” Toossi added. “Iran’s line is unchanged: demanding the lifting of the blockade and holding the main red lines. They are playing hardball. It is spinning.”
Trump’s cancellation of the Kushner-Witkoff trip came hours after NBC News reported that “US military bases and other facilities in the Persian Gulf region suffered extensive damage from Iranian attacks that is far worse than publicly acknowledged and is expected to cost billions of dollars to repair.”
“The Iran War was a tactical and strategic disaster. said Toossi. “Despite great efforts to control the narrative, it is becoming clear how many US bases and equipment in the region were damaged or destroyed. The war backfired and caused far more damage than its proponents care to admit.”
The famous journalist asks him a difficult question
Speaking about the damage, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the last press conference in The Pentagon on Friday, except for his latest release threat to journalists who publish classified information obtained from sources, his comments peppered the violent rhetoric that has become common in his public comments.
of the US military will “shoot and kill” if Iranian ships are found trying to block passage through the Strait of Hormuz, which remains closed after the ceasefire was extended this week, said Hegseth.
He added, “We will shoot to destroy, without hesitation, just like the drug boats in the Caribbean” – a reference to the attacks that have killed at least 180 people the US has accused of drug trafficking, in an operation that has been widely condemned as an assassination or extrajudicial killing.
“The War Department is ready for what comes next, locked and loaded,” said the secretary, who has also denigrated what he refers to as “stupid” rules of engagement meant to protect civilians. “We will use up to and including lethal force if necessary.”
In this context, it is worth noting that amid Hegseth’s increasing efforts to control media coverage of his department—including the Pentagon’s the shooting on Thursday of the Stars and Stripes military newspaper ombudsman and his request that reporters comply with a policy barring coverage that the department has not approved — a new Capitol Hill reporter entered the press conference room Friday.
The outlet, which is more used to publishing celebrity gossip than political coverage, asked the top military official a previously unanswered question about the deadly strikes he has ordered in recent months.
“I’ve heard you talk a lot about bombing people and places,” said Jacob Wasserman of celebrity news outlet TMZ, which recently expanded its political coverage by opening a bureau in the nation’s capital. “And when you give these orders to carry out this extreme level of violence, what’s going through your mind and body? Do you have, like, an adrenaline rush? Are you scared? Do you feel like you’re on a power trip?”
Hegseth appeared confused before smiling and dismissing the question as “a very TMZ question.” He quickly denied that a “power trip” played into his decisions to strike targets in countries including Iran, where at least 3375 people have been killed in US-Israeli attacks, including at least 200 children; The Caribbean Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, where the boat bombing campaign continues; AND Ecuadorwhere US troops launched a joint campaign with the country’s military last month, targeting suspected drug traffickers on the ground.
He said his “only thought process is to make sure our warfighters have everything they need to be successful, to defeat and destroy the enemy,” before adding some of the violent rhetoric Wasserman had alluded to about bringing “maximum violence to the enemy.”
Wasserman’s colleague Charlie Cotton followed up with a question about whether Hegseth, who has argued that the Defense Department has been renamed the War Department, although congressional approval would be needed for such a change, would again consider rechristening the agency as the Department of Peace, “since that’s what we’re all after.”
The question prompted Hegseth, moments after asking for “maximum violence,” to say that “the only institution that should win Nobel Peace Prize every single year is United States military, because we are the guarantor of safety and security, not only of our country, but of many people in this world.”
