Trump to meet Qatar PM as US rejects Iran’s terms for ending war

• Qatar is mediating, but officials say a deal is not close after the US rejected Iran’s latest truce terms.
• Iran is seeking to end the US port blockade, ease sanctions and stop US bombings, which Washington has dismissed as “outrageous and ridiculous”.
• The war continues with strikes on Iran and attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, raising energy risks and keeping the region in deep uncertainty.

ABU DHABI – US President Donald Trump will meet the prime minister of Qatar, a key mediator, on Nov 9 as efforts to end the Iran war ramp up following last week’s midterm elections, though senior US and Gulf officials cast doubt on the chances of an imminent deal.

With no victory in sight more than eight months into the conflict he launched alongside Israel on Feb 28, Trump has played down the likelihood of major warfare restarting soon, but he remains unwilling to accept an existing Iranian truce plan.

Mutual attacks continue, with the US striking Iran’s Qeshm island overnight, according to Iranian state media, and Iran attacking tankers in the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, while its Yemeni Houthi allies have hit Saudi Arabia.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, who is both Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Qatar, will meet Trump and Vice-President J.D. Vance in Washington after having visited Tehran.

Iran’s proposal to end the war involves an end to the US blockade of its ports, the lifting of some sanctions and a halt to bombing in return for Tehran stopping its own blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, with talks on its nuclear programme and other sanctions to follow.

The US has repeatedly rejected that plan, which Iran has said could be condensed to a two-day timeframe, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Nov 8 describing Tehran’s conditions as “outrageous and ridiculous and really not realistic”.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei defended the plan on Nov 9 as the most reasonable offer on the table.

Senior US Republicans, including Vance, have blamed their party’s dire showing in the midterm elections on the Iran war. Despite growing domestic political pressure to end the conflict, Rubio said he did not believe a diplomatic breakthrough was imminent.

A senior United Arab Emirates official, Anwar Gargash, echoed that view on Nov 9, saying a comprehensive political settlement between the US and Iran appeared difficult.

“We should prepare for a long period of uncertainty in which neither a decisive resolution nor stable regional order can be taken for granted,” he said.

Vance, who led negotiations for a short-lived truce in June, will also meet Al-Thani, whose country has been a prime mediator since early in the war, conveying messages between the sides and proposing ways to bridge their differences.

Clashes continue

Strikes on Qeshm island late on Nov 8 did not impact vital infrastructure or services, a provincial official told Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency. The US has not commented on the Iranian media reports.

Attacks on tankers in the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz ramped up sharply in October and have continued at the highest rate since the start of the war, figures from international maritime agencies showed last week.

Iran, which typically does not acknowledge striking vessels that report being hit by projectiles, said on Nov 8 that a tanker hit a mine east of the Strait of Hormuz.

The war has triggered a global energy shortage, prompted Iranian strikes on Gulf Arab countries, spilled over into a major Israeli offensive in Lebanon during the spring and summer, and reignited Yemen’s long-frozen civil war.

On Nov 8, Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthi group said it struck an office building of Saudi state oil company Aramco in Riyadh. The Saudi energy ministry said an attack blew out windows across several floors of a building in the city’s financial district, without assigning responsibility. REUTERS