American and Iranian officials are in the Gulf state, a key intermediary between the two countries, days after new round of attacks threatened efforts to sign a lasting peace deal.
U.S. and Iranian negotiators were in Qatar on Tuesday as both sides were set to hold talks with mediators, after a surge of attacks in recent days over the Strait of Hormuz threatened to derail efforts to agree a lasting peace deal.
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, two of President Trump’s closest advisers, will meet with the prime minister of the Persian Gulf state, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, a U.S. official said. The official added that the U.S. and Iranian delegations would hold separate talks with Qatari and Pakistani mediators on Wednesday.
Esmail Baghaei, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, declined to say directly if nuclear talks with the United States would begin without a timetable for Israel’s military withdrawal from Lebanon. When asked that question in an interview with Iran’s state broadcaster, Baghaei said Iran needed assurances that Israel’s forces would pull back and that the war in Lebanon would not continue. Decisions on the next steps would be made based on developments in the coming days, he added.
Starting negotiations on a deal to end the war will depend on Iran and the United States implementing the truce they agreed to this month, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, said Tuesday in an interview on state television. In particular, he said, the Iranian delegation to talks in Doha, Qatar, led by Kazem Gharibabadi, a deputy foreign minister, must ensure that the fighting ends in Lebanon, where Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group, and Israel have been at war, and that Israel withdraws its forces there. The cease-fire reached two weeks ago provided for 60 days to negotiate the toughest issues, like Western sanctions and Iran’s nuclear program, but the two sides still have not agreed on the meaning of the cease-fire agreement.
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will meet on Tuesday with the Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, and other mediators in Doha to discuss the preliminary agreement between the U.S. and Iran, a U.S. official said.
The official said American and Iranian delegations plan to participate in separate technical talks on Wednesday with mediators from Qatar and Pakistan.
