Why fly for 18 hours when a phone call will do?

Especially under the current circumstances where there is a high probability of the trip being completely unfruitful.

Thank you Sundance, for keeping these easy to find.

I heard this opined on a local morning radio show a few days ago: The Iranian “negotiations” may be just their ploy to string Trump along and gain time, but the commenter noted that Trump and his advisors are well aware of that, and there are probably “other moving parts of Trump’s strategy that we don’t know”. If his peace efforts are disregarded, Trump doesn’t wait in a diplomatic huff like a politician. He strikes.

Good decision..why waste the money, time and energy on delusional Iran liars.
The same applies to Yuckraine

Passing gas and tap dancing as a means of communication.
-Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five & Sirens of Titan (Note: Not for everyone)

But sure seems to fit our communications with Iran.

Trump continually following his instincts about what moves to make keeps him a moving target for the Democrats, which they can’t deal with. Just as they are ramping up to eleventy in response to the current situation, the situation is changed.

When anyone with any sense sees that Trump is playing good-cop bad-cop, the Democrats keep jumping back and forth between “he’s coddling dictators!” and “he’s going to blow up the world by antagonizing dictators,” or “he’s a genocidal maniac,” followed by “TACO TACO, Trump always chickens out!”

They still try to make it work. They know their idiot readers are just waiting for the lie of the day they can use to focus their two minutes of hate. But compared to a sustained target, I think it must be very ineffective for them. They all have to realize that it’s just stupid noise.