TEHRAN: US President Donald Trump said Iran has requested a meeting that will be held in Qatar on Tuesday, despite Tehran earlier denying that any technical talks on the deal aimed at ending the Middle East war were planned.
The announcement came after Iran held its first talks with Oman on managing the Strait of Hormuz since the US-Iran deal was signed, and as Washington and Tehran agreed to halt their attacks, which had strained the agreement.
The exchanges of fire have underscored the fragility of the Pakistan-brokered agreement to stop the war, which sowed havoc across the Middle East and snarled the flow of oil and gas shipments through the vital Hormuz strait.
“IRAN HAS REQUESTED A MEETING. IT WILL TAKE PLACE TOMORROW IN DOHA!” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Monday, without specifying the participants.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt later 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”.
A diplomat with knowledge of the talks confirmed to AFP that officials from the US and Iran were due to meet in the Qatari capital to discuss the deal signed earlier this month.
“Technical teams working on the implementation of the MoU are scheduled to meet in Doha in the coming days,” the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
The diplomat added that “communications channels created to de-escalate any incidents are in place” after the strikes.
Qatar has played a key role alongside Pakistan in mediating a conclusion to the conflict, with the most recent discussions between Tehran and Washington taking place on June 21 with all four countries in attendance. Iran’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi, however, denied reports that technical talks were “planned for this week”, state TV reported. Nevertheless, a US official also told AFP that the negotiations would continue despite the recent strikes. “Both sides will stand down for now and vessels can move freely” in and around the Strait of Hormuz, the official said in an email.
Iran’s exercise of control over the 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”.