Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and adviser Jared Kushner will head to Islamabad, Pakistan, on Saturday for another round of negotiations with Iran, and Vice President JD Vance “is on standby” and could potentially join them there.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the plans on Friday afternoon, first on Fox News and then to reporters moments later.
“As you know, and I spoke about it earlier this week, the president was flexible in granting an extension of this ceasefire. Throughout this time, the President has decided to dispatch Special Envoy Witkoff and Jared Kushner back to Islamabad. The Iranians want to talk,” Leavitt told reporters.
“They want to talk in person. So the President is, as I’ve said many, many times to all of you, always willing to give diplomacy a chance,” she added.
Leavitt, who said on Fox News that Witkoff and Kushner are scheduled to depart Saturday morning, told reporters that President Donald Trump, Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will await updates in Washington, DC.
“The Vice President, I understand, is on standby and will be willing to dispatch to Pakistan if we feel it’s a necessary use of his time,” she added.
Witkoff and Kushner’s scheduled departure comes after plans for Vance to head to Islamabad earlier this week never materialized in the lead-up to the deadline of the initial two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran, which Trump extended Tuesday night.
Witkoff and Kushner were going to travel with Vance, as Breitbart News reported.
In announcing the extension in a Truth Social post, Trump said that the Iranian government is “seriously fractured,” and he would continue the ceasefire until Iran could come forth “with a unified proposal.”
On Wednesday, Leavitt told reporters that Trump “has not set a firm deadline to receive an Iranian proposal,” discrediting anonymously-sourced reporting that he was willing to give the Iranians a three-to-five-day window.
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