Qatari mediators in Tehran – fresh hope for talks between the US and Iran
A delegation from Qatar has arrived in Iran to revive the ceasefire. Pakistan is "cautiously optimistic". Reports of a draft framework remain unconfirmed.
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Qatari mediators arrived in Tehran on Friday morning, Iran's state news agency IRNA reported. The delegation is led by a senior adviser to Qatar's prime minister and foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and the mission is coordinated with US officials. According to sources cited by Al Jazeera, a meeting between the two sides could take place within a week, in Doha or Istanbul. The trigger was a letter from US Vice President JD Vance to Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, delivered on Sunday. According to the Washington Post, Vance also offered a meeting in person.
Pakistan's army is "cautiously optimistic", its spokesman, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, told Reuters on Friday. He warned of "powerful spoilers" without naming them. Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, however, said a carrot-and-stick approach has no effect on Iran. At the same time, US media report plans for new strikes after the 3 November elections.
According to the broadcaster Al Arabiya, quoted by India's ANI agency, a draft framework envisages moving Iran's highly enriched uranium to a third country or lowering enrichment, reopening the Strait of Hormuz within seven days and gradually easing sanctions, with China as a possible guarantor. Neither Washington nor Tehran has confirmed the paper. The two sides remain divided over the nuclear programme, sanctions and the US blockade of Iranian ports.