US President Donald Trump said Iran requested a meeting on Tuesday in Qatar, despite Tehran denying any direct negotiations were planned with Washington on the deal aimed at ending the US-Israel war the Middle East.
The nations’ preliminary agreement to stop the war and reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz has repeatedly come under strain due to clashes, but has also been dogged by the sides’ contradictory assertions.
Just after Trump’s Truth Social post on Monday asserting the Doha meeting with Iran, his spokesperson told Fox News that US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner “will be flying to Doha for high-level meetings this week”.
CNN reported early on Tuesday that Witkoff was en route to Qatar.
However, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said on Monday that a delegation of the country’s own experts would travel to Doha this week, but staunchly denied any sit-down with the Americans.
“We have not yet entered the stage of negotiating a final agreement,” he said, noting that “over the coming days, we will not have any negotiation meetings with the US side at any level”.
Hormuz talks
Iran’s exercise of control over the highly strategic strait has sparked repeated flare-ups, the latest of which came early on Sunday when US Central Command said it had attacked 10 Iranian military targets over “continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping”.
Tehran said it retaliated with strikes against US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain.
The blockade remains a key sticking point in the negotiations.
Iran and Oman border the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passed prior to the conflict, and Tehran said on Monday they held their first talks since the deal was struck.
“During a trip to Muscat, the first meeting of the Joint Hormuz Committee was held,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi wrote on X.
The strait comprises Omani and Iranian territorial waters, but under international law the two cannot generally block passage or charge tolls.
Iran warned on Sunday that any attempt by ships to bypass its preferred route through Hormuz would “increase tensions” in the Middle East.
