US President Donald Trump announced on Monday that American negotiators would hold talks with Iran in Doha on Tuesday, but Tehran swiftly denied any planned meeting. The conflicting statements come amid heightened tensions over the Strait of Hormuz and the implementation of a recent memorandum of understanding (MoU).
Trump, in an all-caps social media post, wrote: “IRAN HAS REQUESTED A MEETING. IT WILL TAKE PLACE TOMORROW IN DOHA!” He later told reporters the meeting “is going to be perhaps important, perhaps not”. The US president also claimed military victory, saying “we’re winning militarily” and reiterating the goal of denuclearizing Iran.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner would travel to Doha for “high-level meetings this week”. However, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry stated that the US envoys would not hold direct meetings with Iranian officials, but rather with mediators.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei rebuffed any planned meeting, stating that Tehran’s “current priority is to ensure the implementation” of the MoU. He added that “we will not have any negotiation meetings at any level with the American side in the coming days”. Iran is sending an expert team to Doha to follow up on the release of frozen assets.
The talks, if they occur, are expected to focus on two main issues: the Strait of Hormuz, where recent exchanges of fire threatened to unravel the MoU, and the release of $6-12 billion in frozen Iranian funds held in Qatar. Trump has conditioned the release on Iran using the money to purchase food and medical supplies exclusively from the US.
The crisis escalated last Thursday when a container ship and oil tanker using a US-backed navigation route came under attack. Washington blamed Iran and struck infrastructure on Iran’s southern islands. Iran retaliated by targeting US military bases in Bahrain and Kuwait. A hotline was used to de-escalate the situation.
According to Muhanad Seloom, an assistant professor at the Doha Institute, the planned meeting is not a breakthrough but “damage control”. He noted that “the weekend Hormuz strikes shrank a nuclear round into one clause. Tehran’s public denial isn’t refusal. It’s leverage.”
Lebanon remains a contentious issue. Iran insists the MoU includes a ceasefire in Lebanon, while a separate US-brokered agreement allows Israeli forces to stay until Hezbollah is disarmed. Iran rejects that deal, and Hezbollah was not part of the talks.
Source: www.aljazeera.com