US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Iran had requested a meeting, which would take place in Doha on Tuesday (today), without providing further details.
“Iran has requested a meeting. It will take place tomorrow in Doha,” Trump wrote in all capital letters in a Truth Social post.
However, a senior Iranian official says there are no planned meetings with US officials from “technical teams” in Doha this week.
Meanwhile, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Monday that $6 billion of Iran’s funds held in Qatar “should be released” and returned to the country under the agreement with the US, according to Iranian media.
“Based on the plans made, $6 billion out of a total of $12 billion of Iran’s funds in Qatar should be released and returned to the country,” Pezeshkian said during a meeting with Grand Ayatollah Shobeiri Zanjani, according to ISNA news agency.
He added that “necessary follow-ups are underway” for the return of the remaining funds.
Earlier, a US official says Iran and the United States agreed to halt recent hostilities in the Gulf and renew talks regarding their dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, a US official said, raising hopes of saving an interim peace deal that was under pressure from days of tit-for-tat strikes.
“Technical talks are slated to continue on all areas of the MOU. Both sides will stand down for now, and vessels can move freely,” the official said, referring to the 14-point memorandum of understanding that was agreed on June 17 under which the strait would be reopened for traffic.
Axios, which first reported the cessation of hostilities, citing a senior US official, said talks would resume Tuesday in Qatar.
A return to diplomacy would follow several days of strikes and counterstrikes since an Iranian projectile hit a cargo vessel in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, with both the US and Iran accusing the other of breaking an interim ceasefire that was agreed to on June 17.
Iran launched missiles and drones at US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain early on Sunday, shortly after US President Donald Trump threatened that the Islamic Republic would cease to exist if it did not honour the agreement to end the war.
Separately, Iran and Oman have conducted the first meeting of a joint committee on the Strait of Hormuz in Muscat, the Iranian deputy foreign minister said on his X account on Monday.
Kazem Gharibabadi said him and Oman’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Abdulaziz Al-Hinai had exchanged views on Gulf coastal states’ sovereign rights as well as on the strait’s future management based on the interim deal signed this month by Tehran and Washington.
“We exchanged views on the future management of the Strait within the framework of…the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding,” he wrote.
Commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz continued at a reduced pace over the weekend after attacks on two vessels renewed concerns over the safety of one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints.
Tracking data showed that some open transits were still taking place after a Singapore-registered container ship, Ever Lovely, was damaged on June 25 and the Panama-flagged tanker M/T Kiku was hit on June 27.
The continued crossings suggest some operators are still prepared to use the waterway, but the slowdown points to uneven confidence among shipowners, insurers and charterers after the latest escalation.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said Ever Lovely sustained minor damage to its bridge area from an unknown projectile while leaving the strait, adding that the vessel later completed its transit and that all 21 crew members were safe.