US-Iran Qatar push muddied as Tehran denies any direct Doha talks

The US and Iran are both sending delegations to Qatar, but Tehran says no direct meeting with Washington is fixed. The contradiction underlines fragile mediation efforts as Strait of Hormuz security remains central to the interim deal.

In Short

• Qatar, Pakistan and Oman continued mediation despite conflicting public claims
• An interim deal links uranium dilution, sanctions relief and shipping access
• Recent strikes around Hormuz disrupted tankers and deepened the energy crisis

The United States and Iran said on Monday that they would send delegations to Qatar this week, but Tehran said it had not agreed to meet the US "at any level" after fresh attacks across the Persian Gulf cast doubt over efforts to end the war. US President Donald Trump said Iran had asked for a meeting and that officials from both sides were due to meet on Tuesday in Doha.

Iran, however, gave a different account. A senior Iranian negotiator said no talks had been confirmed, while the Foreign Ministry said its delegation was travelling to Qatar, which has been mediating the negotiations, to discuss the terms of the interim deal without the US being involved directly. The developments came after several days of strikes in and around the Strait of Hormuz, though both sides appeared to pause attacks on Monday.

The US and Iran agreed earlier this month to an interim deal under which Tehran would dilute its stockpile of enriched uranium. The agreement also waives US-backed oil sanctions on Iran, calls for free movement through the Strait of Hormuz and gives both sides 60 days to work on wider agreements.

After Trump wrote on social media that the two countries planned to meet, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News programme "Fox & Friends" that special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, were flying to Qatar. Pakistan, which has also been a mediator, said talks between Iran and the US would resume on Tuesday.

But Kazem Gharibabadi, a senior Iranian negotiator, said comments carried by Iranian state media showed that no talks had been scheduled. Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said the Iranian delegation was going to Qatar this week to discuss the planned release of frozen Iranian assets and other matters linked to the deal. "There are no negotiation meetings with the US side at any level scheduled in the coming days," Baghaei said. His statement still left open the possibility of messages being passed indirectly through the Qataris.

Tensions have risen sharply in the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil had moved before the war began. Since the war started on February 28, Iranian attacks and threats had halted the movement of cargo ships and tankers through the waterway, triggering a global energy crisis. In recent days, Iran attacked vessels in the strait twice, including a tanker carrying Qatari crude, after efforts were made to open Oman's territorial waters to traffic entering and leaving the Persian Gulf. The attacks prompted retaliatory US airstrikes, while Iran launched drone and missile attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait on Sunday.

The strait has long been treated as an international waterway even though it lies in the territorial waters of Iran and Oman. A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations, said the Trump administration believed both sides were stepping back after the recent exchanges and that ships could move freely through the strait.

The same US official said Qatar was expected to release USD 6 billion in frozen Iranian assets, which would be used to buy US food products for the Iranian people. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had earlier announced the expected release of the funds in comments published by the state-run IRNA news agency. Pezeshkian is the most senior Iranian official so far to refer publicly to the release of the money held in Qatar.

Oman's Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi said on Monday that Oman and Iran were considering service-related charges for commercial ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. He said such services could include water safety measures, pollution prevention, navigational help and readiness for incidents such as fires. But he added that Oman did not support transit fees on ships. "This is internationally forbidden," he said, "and we are abiding by these rules." No such fees have been charged in the strait before, and other Gulf Arab states and the US strongly oppose any cost for transit.

Iran also warned France against what it called "provocations" after French President Emmanuel Macron said on X that France and others were coordinating efforts to clear mines from the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on X that, under the interim deal, "demining is carried out solely by Iran and by no other country". Macron made the comment after meeting Oman's Sultan Haitham bin Tariq ahead of high-level talks in Paris.

Separately, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Lebanon was determined to deploy troops along its full southern border under a framework agreement with Israel signed on Friday. He made the statement during a meeting with Adm. Brad Cooper, the top US military commander in the Middle East. The deal was rejected by the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, which triggered the latest war with Israel on March 2 by firing rockets across southern Lebanon into northern Israel. The agreement says Hezbollah must be disarmed before Israel withdraws from southern Lebanon. Israel has agreed to pull back first from a couple of "pilot zones" where the Lebanese army would then deploy, though no details have been shared on how this would work.

Overall, Monday's announcements showed that mediation efforts involving Qatar, Pakistan and Oman were continuing, even as the US and Iran publicly differed on whether direct talks were planned and security concerns in the Strait of Hormuz remained central to the wider negotiations.

With PTI Inputs

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