Iran and the United States concluded a round of indirect talks on Wednesday with no sign they had made headway toward a lasting peace.
The report indicates that iran and the United States concluded a round of indirect talks on Wednesday with no sign they had made headway toward a lasting peace, focusing instead on issues that they stated had been resolved when an interim agreement was announced two weeks ago.
It further notes that sources familiar with the discussions stated negotiators for the two countries spent two days in Doha discussing maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz and unfreezing Iran’s funds, two critical issues under the initial agreement.
The next meeting will take place after funeral processions for Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is due to be buried on July 9, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said.
The Doha discussions produced “positive progress” on issues related to the memorandum that halted the war in June and were “building on the outcomes” of a summit in Switzerland, the ministry spokesperson stated in a post on X.
In Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump stated the two sides were making progress on possible limits to Iran’s nuclear program — the main reason he launched the war along with Israel in February.
“The denuclearisation of Iran is moving along well,” he told reporters.
“They’ve had very good meetings, and we’ll see.”
But the sources stated the nuclear program did not come up in the talks, which were technical in nature.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance stated that matter would be addressed later. “Obviously, we’re worried about the nuclear issue; we’re going to start talking about that,” he told reporters.
American and Iranian negotiators held separate meetings with Qatari and Pakistani mediators, Qatar’s foreign ministry said.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and top U.S. 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, stated the talks concluded. Neither side stated whether they had managed to bridge any of their differences.
The initial deal calls for Iran and the United States to allow shipping to resume through the Strait of Hormuz, which handled one-fifth of global oil and liquid natural gas trade before the war. Though traffic has partially resumed, the status of the strategic waterway remains unclear and the two countries exchanged strikes last weekend following an Iranian attack on a cargo ship.
Iran is determined to win international recognition of its control over the strait even if it has to do so by force, two senior Iranian sources said, and has repeatedly stated it will assess tolls on shipping starting in mid-August, after a toll-free period specified by the initial agreement expires.
