Donald Trump welcomes indirect US-Iran talks in Qatar days after two sides trade strikes | Today’s news
Hours after the US and Iran concluded their first indirect talks in Doha, Qatar, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday (local time) welcomed the progress, saying: “They had very good meetings.”
Trump made the announcement as the two sides try to move past last week’s chest-bumping and turn their interim cease-fire agreement into a permanent peace deal, Bloomberg reported.
The American president said: “They had very good meetings and we’ll see. We hit them very hard for three nights, as you know, but we get along very well, so I call it denuclearization and it’s going.” However, he did not specify what, if any, breakthroughs had been made.
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Trump negotiators to visit Iran for indirect talks
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, and envoy Steve Witkoff visited the Qatari capital on Tuesday to hold technical discussions on an initial 14-point memorandum of understanding (MoU) that set a 60-day period for negotiations between Washington and Tehran. A US negotiating team met with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani to discuss the ongoing negotiations, and the envoys added that Washington was committed to continuing the talks, the report added, citing a Qatari statement issued on Wednesday.
Vice President JD Vance echoed Trump’s remarks on Wednesday, saying technical talks led by junior negotiators were continuing. Speaking to reporters in Virginia Beach, Va., Vance said, “Technical negotiators are sitting with the Iranians, Qataris and others in Doha and talking about some of the details here.” He added that the discussions included securing transport through the Strait of Hormuz and that negotiators would “start talking” about nuclear issues, the next top priority.
Qatar says there has been “positive progress” in indirect talks.
Qatar’s foreign ministry later said “positive progress” had been made. In a post on X, Majed Al Ansari, official spokesman for the Qatari Foreign Ministry and adviser to the Qatari Prime Minister, said that the negotiations were built on the outcome of the summit at Lake Lucerne in Switzerland. He said talks would resume after Tehran completes funeral rites for the country’s former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February.
Read also | Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s funeral will be held on July 9 in Mashhad
Al Ansari said: “The Qatari and Pakistani mediators held separate talks with US and Iranian negotiators in Doha today, with positive progress on issues related to the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding following the results of the Lake Lucerne summit. The parties agreed to continue discussions in the coming period, with the next meeting scheduled for the funeral process of the former supreme leader as soon as possible.” leader I.”
Funeral rites for Khamenei will begin in Iran on July 4.
Trade strikes between the US and Iran
The indirect talks came days after Washington and Tehran launched strikes last week, putting pressure on an already fragile truce. The attacks followed an alleged attack by an Iranian drone targeting a commercial vessel near the Strait of Hormuz.
The U.S. Central Command said the U.S. aircraft struck Iran’s missile and drone storage sites as well as coastal radar facilities, in what it described as a “strong response to yesterday’s attack.”
Read also | US and Iran agree to end strikes; meet in Qatar, official says
According to The Wall Street Journal, an unnamed U.S. official said Trump had privately considered a return to all-out war with Tehran and held talks with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Cain about military options, but decided to hold off on talks.
