US envoys met with Qatari mediators on Tuesday in Doha to discuss negotiations with Iran, the Gulf state said, after Tehran and Washington agreed a memorandum of understanding this month to halt the Middle East war.
Iran said a team would go to Doha but contradicted US President Donald Trump‘s claim that direct talks would take place.
Qatar also said no high-level meetings or direct talks between the longtime foes were planned.
Here is what we know about the discussions.
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Who and when
Trump posted on Monday that Iran had requested fresh talks in Qatar the following day.
“IT WILL TAKE PLACE TOMORROW IN DOHA!” he wrote.
After his social media post, his spokeswoman 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”.
Qatar‘s foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari confirmed on Tuesday that Witkoff and Kushner were in Doha, but said “they are not here for their negotiations with the Iranians”.
They were there to “meet with mediators, with Qatari officials, and the talks will be around all regional issues … including, of course, negotiations with Iran, but also including Lebanon”, he added.
The Iranian delegation is led by deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi, according to foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, who confirmed Iran would hold its first meeting with mediators on Wednesday.
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Issues on the table
A key issue in the US – Iran accord that needs to be ironed out is Iran’s chokehold on the strategic Strait of Hormuz, with the agreement providing for its reopening.
Traffic in the strait dropped over the weekend after a vessel was struck while transiting the waterway on Saturday.
A US official said talks were “slated to continue on all areas of the MoU”.
Iran has also held recent talks with Oman on what it called the “future management” of vessels transiting the strait.
Another key issue for Iran is its funds frozen by crippling US sanctions.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that the necessary steps to unfreeze these funds were “underway”, saying $6 billion was to be released back to the country out of $12 billion.
Baqaei said on Tuesday that talks would be held with the Qatari side on the “provision concerning the release of Iran’s restricted assets”.
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Fighting calms
Since the signing of the US – Iran deal, both sides have traded sporadic fire in the Gulf.
Tehran’s enforcement of its claim to the Strait of Hormuz has sparked repeated flare-ups.
The latest came on Sunday when US Central Command said it attacked 10 Iranian military targets over “continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping”.
Iran said it retaliated with strikes against US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain, which both condemned Tehran.
Gharibabadi on Tuesday said in a televised interview that “when a war of this magnitude comes to an end… it is inevitable that there will be implementation challenges, incidents, and differences of opinion, especially where parties such as the Israeli regime are concerned”.
He said the Iranian delegation would be focused on the implementation of clauses related to fighting in Lebanon and the Strait of Hormuz.
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“Naturally, the Islamic Republic is committed to ensuring that the agreement is implemented, and the enemy, the United States and its ally, must also fulfil their commitments,” he said.
Yet those exchanges appear to have calmed in the days leading up to the talks in Qatar.
On the Lebanon front, fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has also been relatively quiet in recent days.
Tehran has insisted any deal should include an end to the parallel conflict and a withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon, part of which they have occupied.
A lull in fighting in Lebanon began in the days after the announcement of the Iran – US deal.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
