U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Doha on Tuesday for meetings with Qatari mediators as Washington and Tehran work on implementing an interim agreement reached earlier this month, even as both sides said no direct high-level talks were currently planned. Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said technical discussions were continuing and that mediators were acting as go-betweens. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei likewise said Iran had no meetings scheduled with the American side in the coming days, though he said Iranian officials would discuss implementation issues with Qatar, including the release of blocked Iranian assets.
The interim deal calls for Tehran to dilute its stockpile of enriched uranium, includes a waiver of U.S.-backed oil sanctions, seeks to ensure free traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and gives the two sides 60 days to negotiate broader arrangements. The talks come after recent military exchanges in and around the strait raised questions about whether the effort to formalize an end to the war could hold. Iran twice attacked vessels in the waterway, including a tanker carrying Qatari crude, and the United States responded with airstrikes. Iran also launched drone and missile attacks targeting Bahrain and Kuwait on Sunday.
Qatar has cast its role as focused on ending hostilities and preserving commercial navigation through Hormuz, which al-Ansari described as an international waterway. He said discussions involve the nuclear file, regional security and other parts of the memorandum of understanding, while noting that guarantees ultimately depend on conditions on the ground. U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Washington wants durable commitments from Iran on its nuclear program and said oil shipments through Hormuz had rebounded, with global energy markets beginning to stabilize.
The diplomatic push is unfolding alongside sharply different public messages about the agreement’s prospects. President Donald Trump said the Doha meeting was “perhaps important, perhaps not,” while insisting the central issue remained Iran’s denuclearization. Some supporters of the administration argue the framework is a way to convert military pressure into a longer-term settlement. Critics, including some conservative voices in the United States, contend Iran’s recent actions around the Strait of Hormuz show it cannot be trusted and argue that granting relief before a final settlement could weaken leverage. Those tensions have left the next phase of the Doha process resting on whether indirect technical contacts can produce enough progress to move the negotiations to a higher political level.