Qatari and Pakistani mediators held separate meetings in Doha with US and Iranian negotiators on Wednesday, with Qatar’s Foreign Ministry saying “positive progress” had been made on the memorandum of understanding reached at last month’s Lake Lucerne summit.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari confirmed the talks had taken place, but Reuters, citing unnamed sources, reported the two-day discussions made no real headway towards a lasting peace agreement. According to those sources, negotiators spent the sessions revisiting issues that were meant to have been resolved two weeks earlier, rather than moving on to more complex matters.
The talks centered on maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and financial incentives for Iran, both central pillars of the agreement signed last month, rather than advancing to the broader issues the round had been expected to address.
Al Ansari said the parties had agreed to continue talks, with the date of the next round to be set once the funeral of Iran's former Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has taken place.
Axios, citing a US official, offered a more upbeat assessment, saying the Doha meetings had gone well and produced an understanding to de-escalate over the coming week to allow further progress on multiple fronts.
The outlet reported that White House envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner pressed Iranian counterparts not to insist on transit fees for shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, warning the demand risked unravelling existing understandings between the two sides. In exchange for dropping the condition, the US delegation reportedly argued that the financial returns Iran stood to gain from oil sales once sanctions are lifted would far outweigh the proposed fees.
Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, rejected the premise that the strait's status was Washington's to negotiate. Writing on X, he said the Strait of Hormuz falls under Iranian authority, not that of US Central Command.
He also dismissed a military meeting hosted by Bahrain attended by military commanders and officials from 12 countries, including Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the US, on strengthening joint defense cooperation and safeguarding trade through the strait, saying it could not establish a legal and security order for the “Persian Gulf.”
Regional security, Gharibabadi said, would come through ending foreign intervention, a US withdrawal from the region, respect for state sovereignty, and acceptance of new geopolitical realities not governed by the US military umbrella.
Earlier in the week, US President Donald Trump said a meeting on Iran would be held in Doha, a claim Iran contested at the time, denying that a date for technical talks with Washington had been confirmed.
The US and Iran signed a 14-point memorandum of understanding on June 17, providing for a temporary 60-day halt to the war, the cessation of military operations, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to shipping, and 60 days of negotiations on more complex issues — chief among them Iran's nuclear programme.
That agreement has faced a difficult test in recent days, with both sides accusing each other of violations following clashes in the strait, including reciprocal strikes on US military sites in the Gulf and Iranian facilities on the southern coast, amid continued disagreement over navigation arrangements.
