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Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff will be representing the US side
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US envoys are flying into Doha for high-level peace talks between Washington and Tehran tomorrow, after the countries halted a renewed spate of strikes over their Strait of Hormuz dispute.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff will brief the full US House of Representatives and Senate by phone on Monday on the deal with Iran, a White House official said.
“IRAN HAS REQUESTED A MEETING. IT WILL TAKE PLACE TOMORROW IN DOHA!” Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social.
It came just hours after Tehran’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on Monday that the technical working group meetings had not yet been planned.
Iran and the US had traded attacks in the Gulf in recent days as each accused the other of violating an interim deal signed less than two weeks ago to end their four month war.
On Sunday, Iran said its naval and aerospace forces carried out a joint missile and drone operation targeting US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain, and warned further violations would receive a “crushing response”.
Earlier, the US military said it had struck Iran for the second day after a tanker was hit in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran‘s president said that $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets would be released by Qatar as negotiations with the United States were challenged by attacks across the Persian Gulf this weekend.
Masoud Pezeshkian ‘s mention of the funds appear aimed at selling the Iranian public on the interim deal, particularly as its grip on the Strait of Hormuz has been challenged by efforts to open Oman’s territorial waters to both inbound and outbound traffic from the Persian Gulf.
Iran’s attacks and threats stopped cargo ships and tankers from moving though the strait, in which about a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed in peacetime, creating a global energy crisis.
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A security deal between Israel and Lebanon risks entrenching a stalemate rather than resolving Israel’s underlying conflict with Hezbollah by tying Israel’s pullout from southern Lebanon to the Iran-aligned group’s disarmament, a condition regional analysts and politicians say is unattainable.
At its core is a bargain few see as workable: Hezbollah has flatly rejected disarmament, and no Lebanese government has the power to enforce it.
With Hezbollah unlikely to disarm, analysts say Israel has political cover to keep an open-ended military presence in southern Lebanon, which it invaded after Hezbollah fired at Israel on 2 March in solidarity with Tehran over the war in Iran.
The deal leaves the Lebanese state trapped between obligations it cannot meet and sovereignty it cannot fully reclaim, the analysts say.
The framework deal also collides with Lebanon’s political realities, asking a fragile sectarian state to confront the most powerful armed faction in the country despite a post–civil war system built on power-sharing rather than coercion.
“This is not an agreement, it is an imposed settlement,” said a senior Lebanese politician who declined to be named.
The Lebanese army, he said, was neither structured nor equipped to disarm Hezbollah, and expecting it to do so ignored both the group’s entrenched military capacity and the fragile sectarian balance on which Lebanon’s stability rests.
Political analysts say the imbalance is built into the agreement’s design, with sweeping obligations placed on Lebanon but no reciprocal guarantee of Israeli withdrawal.
“This agreement has put all the burden on Lebanon,” said Michael Young, a Beirut-based analyst, adding that it “creates a structure that allows the Israelis to remain [in southern Lebanon] indefinitely.”
Fawaz Gerges, a Lebanese scholar at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said the deal was “born dead” and is structurally flawed, hinging on a condition that is impossible to meet in practice.
Lebanon’s president met with the top US military commander in Beirut on Monday to discuss its agreement with Israel.
In a post on social media, Lebanon’s presidency said: “During the meeting, discussions were held regarding the preparations related to the start of implementation of the framework agreement that was approved as a result of the Lebanese-American-Israeli negotiations in Washington.
“President Aoun thanked Admiral Cooper for the attention shown by US president Donald Trump toward Lebanon to achieve security and stability in it, reaffirming the Lebanese state’s determination to extend its authority through its armed forces all the way to the international southern borders.”
The number of ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz plummeted over the weekend after a vessel was struck on Saturday morning.
Maritime tracking firm Kpler said 29 ships crossed the strait on Saturday and 12 on Sunday, a sharp decline from the 70 on Wednesday.
Donald Trump unleashed strikes on Iran after a commercial ship was targeted while exiting the Strait of Hormuz
The White House has vowed violence against Iran if it does not hold up to its end of the peace deal.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Donald Trump was “unafraid to use the might of our military”, adding that the US would win no matter the outcome of talks.
“Special Envoy Witkoff and Jared Kushner will be flying to Doha for high-level meetings this week, as we continue to discuss the memorandum of understanding,” she told Fox News.
“On the sidelines of those high-level talks, will be the technical talks.
“As far as we’re concerned, we’re holding up our end of the ceasefire. Violence will be met with violence,” Ms Leavitt added.
“We hope we don’t see that, the president obviously wants to see the peace process play out and the Iranians would be best to sign a good deal with the US because the president has proven he is unafraid to use the might of our military.
“Either way, the US wins,” she added. “If the peace process plays, gas prices will continue to tumble…or if Iran choses to be a bad actor, they’ll prove themselves to be the pariah of the Middle East.”
Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff are expected to brief US Congress on peace talks and Washington’s tentative agreement with Iran.
Sources told CNN and Politico that the envoys would speak to house lawmakers at 4pm ET.
It would be the first time that a broad group of members have been briefed on the Trump administration’s efforts to wind the war.
It comes after both Republicans and Democrats called for more transparency over the agreement.
A top Iranian diplomat has denied claims that talks between Iran and the US were planned in Doha this week.
According to Iranian state media, Kazem Gharibabadi said: “technical working group meetings were not scheduled for this week.”
The deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs added that technical discussions would not take place until “necessary conditions” were met and a date and venue was agreed on.
“The first round of technical talks within the framework of the designated working groups will be held after the necessary conditions are met and following agreement on the date and venue, and consultations on these matters are continuing through the mediator countries.”
Qatar’s ministry of transport has suspended sailing and maritime activities “in the interest of public safety”.
It said it was urging “all owners and users of marine vessels, including pleasure boats, fishing boats, jet skis, and all similar marine vessels, to temporarily suspend navigation and marine activities, effective from the date of issuance of this circular until further notice.”
It did not provide a reasoning behind the measure, but it comes one day after Qatar said one of its nationals was killed after sustaining injuries from shrapnel due to “military operations in the region” after his vessel went missing.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff will brief the full US House of Representatives and Senate by phone on Monday on the deal with Iran, a White House official said.
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