US envoys meet Qatari mediators in Doha as Iran rules out direct talks

DOHA: US envoys were in Qatar on Tuesday for discussions with Qatari mediators on negotiations involving Iran after Tehran and Washington agreed earlier this month to a memorandum of understanding aimed at halting the Middle East war. But while US President Donald Trump had said fresh talks requested by Iran would take place in Doha, Iranian and Qatari officials said no direct high-level meeting between the two sides was planned there.

Trump wrote on Monday that Iran had asked for new talks in Qatar the next day, saying the meeting would be held in Doha. After that post, his spokeswoman told Fox News that US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner would travel to Doha for high-level meetings this week.

Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari confirmed on Tuesday that Witkoff and Kushner were in Doha, but said they were not there for negotiations with the Iranians. He said the two Americans were in the Qatari capital to meet mediators and Qatari officials, and that the discussions would cover regional matters, including Iran negotiations and Lebanon.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said on Monday that an expert delegation would travel to Doha later this week for discussions related to the agreement, but not for direct talks with the United States. He also said Iran had not yet reached the stage of negotiating a final agreement and indicated there would be no meetings with the American side in the coming days.

"We have not yet entered the stage of negotiating a final agreement," Baqaei said, adding “over the coming days, we will not have any negotiation meetings with the US side at any level”.

Issues under discussion

One of the main unresolved issues in the memorandum concerns Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz, with the agreement providing for the waterway to be reopened. Traffic through the strait fell over the weekend after a vessel was hit while passing through it on Saturday. A US official said the talks were expected to continue on all parts of the memorandum.

Iran has also recently held talks with Oman on what it described as the future management of ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz. Another major issue for Tehran is access to funds frozen under US sanctions. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that steps to unfreeze the money were in progress and that $6 billion would be returned to Iran out of a total of $12 billion.

On Tuesday, Baqaei said discussions would likely be held with the Qatari side the next day on the provision related to the release of Iran’s restricted assets.

Fighting eases before Doha contacts

Since the US-Iran agreement was signed, both sides have exchanged intermittent fire in the Gulf. Iran’s enforcement of its claim over the Strait of Hormuz has led to repeated flare-ups. The latest incident came early Sunday, when US Central Command said it had struck 10 Iranian military targets over what it called continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping.

Iran said it responded with strikes on US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain, and both countries condemned Tehran. Even so, those exchanges appeared to have eased in the days before the Doha contacts.

On another regional front, fighting in the war between Israel and Hezbollah has also been comparatively subdued in recent days. Tehran has said any agreement should also include an end to that parallel conflict and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon, parts of which remain occupied. The lull in fighting there began in the days after the announcement of the US-Iran deal.