US President Donald Trump has praised Pakistan’s leadership amid the peace process with Iran, while also stating that he is not sending envoys Steve Wikoff and Jared Kushner to the country because it would be “too much travel”.

“I think Pakistan is terrific and the field marshal is fantastic. I think the prime minister of Pakistan’s great, and they’d like to see something happen,” Trump told reporters.

“But we’re not going to be travelling 15, 16 hours to have a meeting with people that nobody ever heard of.”

Asked about what changed that prompted Trump to cancel a visit to Pakistan by his envoys, he said, “Too much travel.

“When they say the meeting’s scheduled for Tuesday, I say ‘Tuesday? That’s a long time from now.’ But when you get down to it, that’s a lot of travelling,” he added.