Iran Talks Collapse Saturday: Araghchi Delivers Demands and Leaves Pakistan — Kushner and Witkoff Arrive to Empty Table

# Iran Talks Collapse Saturday: Araghchi Delivers Demands and Leaves Pakistan — Kushner and Witkoff Arrive to Empty Table

> **Quick answer:** Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met Pakistani army chief Asim Munir and FM Ishaq Dar on Saturday, delivered Tehran's preconditions through Pakistani mediators, and departed Islamabad for Muscat then Moscow — all before US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived. No direct US-Iran meeting took place. The White House had promised "direct talks." Iran's foreign ministry said no meeting was ever planned. Brent crude closed at $105.33 Friday; no Hormuz reopening signal has emerged. Monday opens into a mega-week of Big Tech earnings, FOMC, and GDP data — and now with the weekend wildcard unresolved.

The weekend that markets had been quietly pricing as a peace catalyst ended with the same Hormuz blockade in place and a widening credibility gap between Washington's public statements and Tehran's actual movements. Here is exactly what happened Saturday April 25, and what it means for your portfolio when futures open Sunday night.

## What the White House Promised vs. What Iran Did

On Friday evening, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that "special envoy Witkoff and Jared Kushner will be off to Pakistan again tomorrow morning to engage in talks — direct talks, intermediated by the Pakistanis." The framing was deliberate: not proximity talks, not shuttle diplomacy, but direct engagement.

Iran did not get the memo — or rather, Iran had a different memo.