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Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff will discuss the state of negotiations with mediators
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Tehran has mocked Donald Trump with claims that the Strait of Hormuz is the country’s “greatest instrument of power” in peace talks.
Speaking on Tuesday, Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said they would not initiate remaining clauses of the memorandum of understanding (Mo) until the initial five clauses were fully stabilised and finalised.
He added that the Strait of Hormuz, which has become a key negotiating tool in Iran’s belt after the nation took control of it early on in the war, was a “divine gift granted to them, serving as their greatest instrument of power.”
The MoU is made up of 14 points, including the safe reopening of the Strait of Hormuz for 60 days and the US terminating any sanctions against Iran.
Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have arrived in Qatar to meet mediators, but Iran has insisted no direct talks are on the table.
“There is no high level meeting between the US and Iran planned,” Qatar said on Tuesday, in another sign that the peace process was stalling.
President Donald Trump has said the US is getting along very well with Iran and that recent meetings in Qatar were a success.
“The denuclearization of Iran is moving along well,” Trump told reporters. “They’ve had very good meetings, and we’ll see.”
The US and Iran held technical talks in the Qatari capital of Doha as they seek to agree on the flow of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and secure a lasting ceasefire, a source with direct knowledge of the talks and an Iranian official said.
The talks in Doha are structured as sessions between chief negotiators and specialists, the source with knowledge of the talks said. They began on Tuesday night and were continuing on Wednesday, said the Iranian official.
Iran has stated publicly that its priorities include agreeing on management of the Strait of Hormuz and the release of $6 billion in Iranian frozen assets, and the Iranian official said the current round of discussions would focus on those two issues.
The stated priority of the US is to ensure the free flow of traffic through the strait, the source with knowledge of the talks said. Iran’s state media said on Wednesday a foreign container ship had run aground in the Strait of Hormuz after entering shallow waters outside the shipping route designated by Iranian authorities.
“Hormuz continues to reopen but it’s patchy, unpredictable, and not fully transparent,” said Vandana Hari, founder of oil market analysis provider Vanda Insights.
Trump is reportedly weighing a return to war with Iran, discussing the possibility with senior officials like Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
Conversations have centered around what some officials call “finishing the job”, the paper reported.
While set to stick with diplomacy, Trump has reportedly told aides he believes another round of full-scale attacks could derail diplomacy and harm efforts to dismantle Iran’s nuke program.
The US president also told aides that he is fine if negotiations with Tehran blow past the 18 August headline.
A foreign container ship has run aground in the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state television reported on Wednesday, claiming the vessel failed to follow an approved route. While identifying it as a foreign container ship, the report provided no further immediate details about the incident.
The Iranian state television report appeared aimed at underlining Tehran’s claims to control over the strait, which has long been considered by the world as an international waterway. A fifth of all oil and natural gas typically passes through it in peacetime.
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Iran is determined to win international recognition of its control over the Strait of Hormuz and ability to levy fees on ships entering or leaving the Gulf even if it has to do so by force, two senior Iranian sources said.
Under this month’s interim deal with the US to end their three-month conflict, Iran agreed to let ships pass through the Strait for 60 days without charge. But it believes the wording of the agreement allows it to keep control of which ships may pass and which route they take through the narrow waterway.
It is also determined to secure lasting formal acceptance of this control once the interim phase expires, and its negotiators will not move to other areas of dispute in ongoing peace talks with Washington until that has been agreed, the sources said.
If the interim deal ends without being extended, Iran would start charging ships for passage in mid-August, though it has not yet laid out any list of what fees it will charge or how. Iran closed the Strait when the war began and Iranian officials have said authorities charged some vessels navigation or other fees to leave the Gulf.
The grim scale of the financial impact of the Iran war on UK households has been laid bare, with energy bills set to soar by more than £221 a year from July.
The rise in Ofgem’s price cap – the largest since 2023 – has been triggered by global energy markets being thrown into turmoil following the US and Israel’s attacks on 28 February.
Britons are now being squeezed from all angles as the Middle East conflict shows no sign of abating.
Global oil and gas prices have surged, motorists are forking out around £15 more at the pump, and food bills are soaring. Britons are also facing significantly higher mortgage costs, while businesses are being lumbered with a raft of price hikes.
Experts are warning that the cost of living crisis is only set to get worse, with painful energy price rises due to hit in October, when demand increases ahead of winter.
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Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has said the country would not initiate remaining clauses of the memorandum of understanding (Mo) until the initial five clauses were fully stabilised and finalised.
He added that the Strait of Hormuz was a “divine gift granted to them, serving as their greatest instrument of power.”
The strait has become a key negotiating tool in Iran’s belt after the nation took control of it early on in the war, swiftly impacting the global oil market.
The price of oil has now steadied to $70 per barrel, but previously peaked at $113 in April.
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