The US and Iran held indirect technical talks in Doha on Wednesday, which US President Donald Trump described as “very good,” as American and Iranian officials said that the participants agreed to open a communication channel to ensure the terms of their memorandum of understanding are met, amid continued disagreements over its implementation. According to Iran, the sides agreed on a partial release of billions of dollars of frozen Iranian funds, though US officials reportedly denied that such an understanding was reached.
The effort came two weeks after the US and Iran signed the MOU, which gave them 60 days to negotiate a final deal covering Iran’s nuclear program. But talks on that final deal haven’t really begun yet, largely due to disputes over the Strait of Hormuz and Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. The indirect talks, mediated by Qatar and Pakistan, began on Tuesday night and continued Wednesday, an Iranian official said.
“They’ve had very good meetings, and we’ll see,” Trump told reporters before boarding the new, Qatari-gifted Air Force One. “The denuclearization of Iran is moving along well.” While Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff were in Doha, they did not attend the technical meetings, according to a source with direct knowledge of the talks, who added that the meetings were structured as sessions between chief negotiators and specialists. The two top US envoys instead met with the Qatari prime minister to lay the groundwork for the meetings, the source added.
US negotiators were reportedly seeking to convince their Iranian counterparts at the ongoing indirect technical talks in Doha to forgo plans to charge tolls in the Strait of Hormuz, arguing that Tehran would be able to make more money by following through with nuclear concessions than it would be able to generate from such fees. (Ed note: Nuclear concessions? The US team of Steve and Jared do NOT understand that this is not a financial or economic war, this is a Religious War in which nuclear refinement is part of their Religion in order to annihilate the Jew.) (Read More)
