President Donald Trump says Iran asked for a meeting in Qatar on Tuesday. Tehran says no such sit-down with Washington is planned.
Trump made the claim in a Truth Social post on Monday. Shortly afterward, his spokesperson told Fox News that envoy Steve Witkoff and adviser Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, “will be flying to Doha for high-level meetings this week.” CNN reported early Tuesday that Witkoff was on his way to Qatar.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baqaei, drew a line the same day. A delegation of Iranian experts would travel to Doha this week, he said, but he flatly denied any meeting with the Americans. “We have not yet entered the stage of negotiating a final agreement,” Baqaei said, and “over the coming days, we will not have any negotiation meetings with the US side at any level.”
The two governments have been trading contradictory accounts since they reached a preliminary agreement to end the US-Israel war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Clashes have repeatedly strained it.
Strikes around the strait
The latest flare-up came early Sunday. US Central Command said it attacked 10 Iranian military targets over “continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping.” Tehran said it answered with strikes on US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. The blockade of the strait remains a major sticking point in the negotiations.
Iran and Oman both border the waterway, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passed before the conflict. On Monday Tehran said the two countries had held their first talks since the deal. “During a trip to Muscat, the first meeting of the Joint Hormuz Committee was held,” Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi wrote on X.
The strait is made up of Omani and Iranian territorial waters, but under international law neither country can generally block passage or charge tolls. Iran warned on Sunday that any attempt by ships to avoid its preferred route would “increase tensions” in the Middle East. It insists that vessels use a corridor close to its own shores.
The de-mining dispute
How the memorandum will be carried out is still unclear, and de-mining is an especially touchy point for Tehran. After French President Emmanuel Macron met Omani Sultan Haitham bin Tariq, Paris and Muscat said in a joint statement that they would run joint de-mining operations. Gharibabadi replied that the agreement gives Iran alone the right to clear mines. “The situation is sensitive and complex. We strongly advise France not to complicate it further with its provocations,” he wrote.
Shipping data shows the effect. Traffic slowed over the weekend after a vessel was struck in the strait. Kpler counted 29 commodity vessels crossing on Saturday and 12 on Sunday. None used a southern corridor through Omani waters, and another tracker, AXSMarine, found that 44 vessels had stopped publicly transmitting their position.
The published text of the memorandum says Iran will define the future administration of the strait in dialogue with Oman and other Gulf states, but “in line” with international law. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they were taking steps to control traffic and that vessels breaking those measures would be dealt with more firmly than before. Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, wrote on X that as long as Iran manages the strait, Washington’s “hegemonic dreams in the region will not be realised.”
