AGENCIES

Iran’s foreign minister returned to Islamabad for more consultations yesterday, as international mediators tried to keep peace talks on track despite US President Donald Trump calling off his envoys’ planned trip.

According to the Iranian news agency ISNA, Abbas Araghchi was to sit down with Pakistani officials to convey “Iran’s positions and views on the framework of any understanding to completely end the war” in the Middle East.

The minister had already been in Islamabad only the day before, after which he travelled to Oman, while other Iranian envoys went to Tehran “to consult and obtain the necessary instructions on issues related to ending the war”, according to the agency.

Before Saturday’s Iran-Pakistan meetings in Islamabad, the White House had announced that Trump’s peace envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were planning to leave for Pakistan to engage in further negotiations.

But Trump later told Fox News he had scrapped the trip, saying there was no point “sitting around talking about nothing”. He dismissed Tehran’s negotiating position, but added that it had revised its proposal within minutes of his decision.

“They gave us a paper that should have been better and -- interestingly -- immediately when I cancelled it, within 10 minutes, we got a new paper that was much better,” he told reporters, without elaborating.

Asked separately whether halting the trip meant a return to open hostilities, Trump said: “No, it doesn’t mean that. We haven’t thought about it yet.”

Later, after a gunman was arrested at the White House Correspondents’

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