There will be no direct technical talks or meetings between Iranian and U.S. officials while both sides are in Doha, Qatar, this week, the country’s Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday, casting doubt on the possibility of a peace deal between the two nations.
Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said in a statement that President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will instead meet with mediators to discuss negotiations.
Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner, who is Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, will sit down Tuesday with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, according to a senior White House official.
The official said the U.S. and Iran delegations are expected to meet separately with mediators from Qatar and Pakistan on Wednesday.
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Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, confirmed Tuesday in a briefing that Iranian diplomats would be in Qatar for two days but would not meet with U.S. officials. The delegation’s role, he said, would be to discuss U.S. progress toward implementing the provisions of the memorandum of understanding with Qatari mediators.
Mr. Baghaei added that Iranian officials will discuss the status of $6 billion of frozen Iranian assets held in Qatar. Mr. al-Ansari said Tuesday that the assets had not been transferred to Iran and that procedural negotiations had not taken place.
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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Monday that $6 billion of the $12 billion in funds held in Qatar would be released and returned.
Under the terms of the memorandum of understanding, the U.S. must make Iran’s frozen assets available after the implementation of the agreement.
However, U.S. officials have remained adamant that Iran will not have access to any funds until it meets certain terms of the memorandum, such as keeping the Strait of Hormuz open to shipping.
The agreement also calls for a comprehensive ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon, where Israel and the Iran-backed Islamist group Hezbollah have been at war since early March.
Israel insists, however, that it is not bound by any agreement to which it is not a signatory and did not negotiate.
The indirect discussions come after both sides exchanged military strikes over the weekend, threatening to destroy an already fragile ceasefire agreement.
Iran and the U.S. had met for direct negotiations earlier in June in Geneva after the two countries signed the U.S.-backed memorandum of understanding, which established a ceasefire and a 60-day negotiating window.
The negotiations are intended to address the future of Iran’s nuclear program, sanctions relief and control over the Strait of Hormuz.
