Doha: Iran and the US concluded a round of indirect talks with no sign they had made headway towards a lasting peace, focusing instead on issues that they had supposedly resolved two weeks ago.
Sources said negotiators for the two countries spent two days in Doha discussing maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz and financial incentives for Iran, two pillars of the initial agreement they signed in June, rather than more difficult topics that framework was supposed to tee up.
In Washington, US President Donald Trump said the two sides were making progress on possible limits to Iran’s nuclear program – the main reason he launched the war in February. “The denuclearisation of Iran is moving along well,” he told reporters. “They’ve had very good meetings, and we’ll see.“
But sources said the nuclear program did not come up in the talks, which were technical in nature. US Vice President JD Vance said that would be addressed later.
The two sides did not meet face to face, instead interacting separately with mediators from Qatar and Pakistan.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and top US envoy Steve Witkoff, dispatched to the region for what the White House had billed as “high-level” talks, did not attend the sessions, according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity. The leader of Iran’s delegation, deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi, said talks concluded. Neither side said whether they had managed to bridge their differences.
Reuters
