Iranian and US negotiating teams were due in Doha this week, but Iran said on Monday no meeting had been scheduled as weekend missile fire from both sides tested the interim ceasefire to end the four-month-old war. US President Donald Trump is sending his son-in-law Jared Kushner and his envoy Steve Witkoff to lead the negotiating team, according to his press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
While Iran is sending its technical delegation to Qatar this week, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said this had "no relation" to the Americans' visit and no talks between the two sides were scheduled. "We will not have any negotiation meetings at any level with the American side in the coming days," Baghaei said.
Meeting will be focused only on Hormuz: Iranian official
A senior Iranian official said there would be a meeting in Doha on Tuesday, but unlike previous technical talks between Iran and US teams in Switzerland, the focus would be on managing the Strait of Hormuz and de-escalating tensions. Another official with knowledge of the plans said technical teams from the US and Iran are expected to meet separately with Qatari and Pakistani mediators on Wednesday.
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Uncertainty over talks
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, "the meeting in Doha is going to be perhaps important, perhaps not. We're going to find out. "At the same time he maintained "we're winning militarily" and repeated his condition that Iran must be stopped from producing a nuclear weapon. Iran has sought leverage by flexing its control of the strait shared with neighboring Oman, saying it plans to charge fees to ships using the waterway and obstructing vessels that stray outside defined paths. The US has accused Iran of hitting at least two commercial ships with missiles or drones in recent days and bombed Iranian military facilities in response.
Iran, in turn, launched missiles and drones at US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain early on Sunday. Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed members of Congress on Iran by phone on Monday. Republican Senator Steve Daines told reporters they kept their remarks to a minimum, but he nonetheless deemed the conversation "constructive." Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer, however, called the briefing "deficient and devoid of details." "After dragging America into a costly war, the Trump administration still can't name a single thing Americans got in return. Instead, Secretary Rubio confirmed to me that Iran will reap billions in oil revenue while retaining dangerous leverage over the Strait of Hormuz," Schumer said.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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