ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran on Monday denied that “technical talks” with the United States were scheduled to take place in Qatar, with a senior foreign ministry official saying such discussions would only occur when “necessary conditions are met.” The statement coincided with US President Donald Trump saying Tehran had “requested” a meeting and that it would be held in Doha on Tuesday.
Kazem Gharibabadi, deputy for legal and international affairs at Tehran’s foreign ministry, said that “technical working group meetings [with the US] were not scheduled for this week,” as cited by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
He added that while consultations with Qatar, including on following up the implementation of the other side’s commitments, are continuing as usual, reports of technical working group talks being held in Doha are not true.
The first round of technical talks within the framework of designated working groups would take place only after “necessary conditions are met” and “after an agreement is reached on the date and venue,” Gharibabadi added, noting that consultations on these matters are continuing through mediator countries.
The remarks coincided with a statement by US President Trump who said in a Monday post on his Truth Social platform that “IRAN HAS REQUESTED A MEETING. IT WILL TAKE PLACE TOMORROW [Tuesday] IN DOHA!”
In recent days, some media outlets had reported and speculated that a technical meeting related to the Islamabad memorandum of understanding on ending the imposed war would be held between Iran, the United States, and the mediators.
For her part, White House Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Monday that US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner would be flying to the Qatari capital “for high-level meetings this week.”
Meanwhile, Agence France-Presse (AFP), citing an informed diplomat, reported that “technical teams working on the implementation of the [Memorandum of Understanding] MoU [between Tehran and Washington] are scheduled to meet in Doha in the coming days.”
The diplomat further said that “communication channels” had been established to help de-escalate “incidents” following the recent military escalation between the two sides.
Tehran and Washington in mid-June signed the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding Between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran, which establishes a cessation of military operations on all fronts and provides for talks aimed at reaching a comprehensive, binding settlement within 60 days of its signing, with the possibility of extension by mutual consent.
However, the preliminary understanding was severely tested last week after it briefly collapsed into high-intensity military exchanges across the region before backchannel diplomacy led to an emergency stand-down.
The escalation began on Thursday when an Iranian drone struck a Panama-flagged commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, in an attack Tehran described as an enforcement action, insisting on its authority over traffic through the waterway under the terms of the memorandum.
In response, the US carried out airstrikes on Iranian military infrastructure, including surveillance networks, communications facilities, air defense sites, and drone storage and mine-laying positions along the coast.
The situation escalated further when Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched coordinated ballistic missile and drone attacks targeting US military facilities in the region, including the Fifth Fleet base in Bahrain and the Ali Al Salem Airbase in Kuwait.
The American website Axios reported on Sunday night that American and Iranian negotiators, with the assistance of mediators, agreed to halt the exchange of fire in the Strait of Hormuz after several days of hostilities that cast doubt on the viability of the MoU.
RELATED: US, Iran agree to halt exchange of fire in Strait of Hormuz
