Pakistan has announced that technical-level discussions between the United States and Iran are scheduled to resume on Tuesday in the Gulf, even as uncertainty persists over when political leaders may return to formal negotiations.
U.S. President Donald Trump said American officials would meet with Iranian counterparts in Qatar on the same day. CNN reported that Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff is en route to the Gulf country. Separate reporting by Axios said Witkoff and Jared Kushner would hold meetings with Qatari leaders and other officials, and that technical teams from both Washington and Tehran would meet with diplomats from Qatar and Pakistan - two states that have acted as intermediaries in recent diplomacy.
Iran’s foreign ministry confirmed that an expert Iranian delegation is due to travel to Doha later this week. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said on Monday that such a delegation was expected, but he added that no direct negotiations with the United States were scheduled in the immediate coming days.
These exchanges come after reports that Washington and Tehran agreed to stop attacks in the Strait of Hormuz. The strategic waterway saw a flare-up of fighting last week, an episode that threatened to unravel a fragile memorandum of understanding the two sides signed earlier in June.
Brent crude futures, which moved back toward pre-conflict levels following the interim accord, were last trading at about $73.38 a barrel. Analysts at ING cautioned that the recent sharp decline in oil prices may have gone too far in part because markets may be prematurely pricing in a rapid normalization of supply from the Persian Gulf.
Despite the framework agreement, both Washington and Tehran still face substantive policy debates ahead of a mid-August deadline to reach a final accord. A principal source of contention is control and access to the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. officials have stated that the channel - a conduit for roughly a fifth of the world’s oil - is open to tanker traffic. Iranian officials, however, insist on retaining some level of control over the passage. Last week’s short-lived exchanges of strikes were linked to that dispute.
Another unresolved area is Iran’s nuclear activities. President Trump has repeatedly said Iran must abandon its nuclear program. Tehran has maintained that its nuclear efforts are peaceful and civilian in nature. The memorandum of understanding included a 60-day interval intended to allow talks on this matter.
Additional outstanding questions include the status of sanctions waivers and the implications of ongoing fighting in Lebanon between U.S.-aligned Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. Both topics were flagged as unresolved in the run-up to further discussions.
For now, the diplomatic track will include technical delegations and intermediary-hosted meetings in the Gulf, while major strategic and political obstacles remain to be addressed before negotiators can claim a comprehensive or durable settlement.