President Donald Trump has said that the U.S. and Iranian negotiators were expected to meet in the Qatari capital Doha on Tuesday, despite no confirmation from Tehran.
"IRAN HAS REQUESTED A MEETING. IT WILL TAKE PLACE TOMORROW IN DOHA," Trump wrote Monday on his Truth Social platform, without providing further details on the purpose of the talks.
Speaking later at the White House, Trump said his team had already departed or was in the process of doing so. "The meeting in Doha is going to be perhaps important, perhaps not," he said.
Iran had earlier rejected reports of an imminent round of talks with the United States. A new round of talks would take place "as soon as the conditions are in place and agreement has been reached on the date and venue," said Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, according to the Iranian news agency ISNA.
"No technical working group meetings are scheduled for this week," he added, while noting that consultations would continue via intermediaries.
The U.S. news site Axios reported that both sides were planning to meet Tuesday in Doha to discuss their dispute over the Strait of Hormuz.
On Sunday, Washington and Tehran had agreed to suspend their mutual attacks for now in the dispute over the strait and to continue negotiations, according to U.S. sources.
"Both sides will refrain from taking further action for the time being," reported Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) citing sources in Washington.
In recent days, the U.S. military has carried out renewed strikes on Iran following attacks on ships in the strait, which Washington had attributed to Tehran.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in turn, attacked targets in the U.S.-allied Gulf states of Kuwait and Bahrain.
The trigger was differing interpretations of the framework agreement signed around two weeks ago to end the war – particularly regarding the provisions on the Strait of Hormuz, which is vital for global trade.
Iran claims control over shipping traffic in the strait. "The Strait of Hormuz will be returned to Iran's full administration within the next 30 days," Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said during a visit to Baghdad Sunday.
He reiterated that responsibility for the strait lay solely with Iran – an interpretation that Washington considers at odds with international maritime law.
The strait, which is vital for global trade in oil and fertilizer, has proven to be a powerful lever for the Islamic Republic during the war.
Earlier, Gharibabadi traveled to Oman for talks on the Strait of Hormuz. There, at the first gathering of a newly established committee, he met with the Omani diplomat Abdulasis al Hinai, as Gharibabadi wrote on X.
No details of the talks with al Hinai were initially disclosed. However, the Iranian diplomat wrote that the discussions centred on current issues surrounding the strait, as well as the future administration of the Strait of Hormuz and the sovereign rights of both coastal states.
At a meeting with a high-ranking cleric in the religious stronghold of Qom, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian defended the framework agreement signed with the U.S. just under two weeks ago.
"This agreement represents a great victory for the people of Iran," said the moderate-conservative politician, according to a statement from his office.
Following the meeting with Grand Ayatollah Musa Shobeiri Sanjani, Pezeshkian cited the lifting of sanctions on the oil sector and the release of frozen assets as successes of the negotiations.
A few days ago, leading Iranian clerics in Qom, the center of Shiite scholarship, had called for vigilance. The U.S. remains Iran's main enemy, according to a statement.
