Washington and Tehran Give Conflicting Accounts of Planned Doha Talks

The United States and Iran offered contradictory descriptions of their diplomacy on Tuesday. President Trump said the two governments would meet directly in Doha, with United States envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff traveling to Qatar, after writing that Iran had requested the meeting. Less than two hours earlier, a senior Iranian official said technical talks over the memorandum of understanding between the two sides were not planned for this week, and Tehran said its delegation would go to Doha only to follow up on implementation, not to meet American counterparts.

The dispute follows a weekend of strikes. Iran attacked a cargo ship near Oman, the United States responded, and Iran fired at American military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain before both sides agreed to halt the exchanges. The Israeli business daily Globes reported that oil tankers have begun returning to the Strait of Hormuz and that forecasts for crude prices are shifting, a sign markets are treating the truce as real for now.

The talks are taking place as Iran prepares the funeral of its supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated in February in United States and Israeli airstrikes and was succeeded by his son, Mojtaba. Iranian state media reported that provinces are mobilizing to receive mourners for ceremonies scheduled between July 4 and 9. A Pakistani Sunni cleric quoted by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) praised the late leader and described the funeral as a moment of unity for the Muslim world. The contrast between the public mourning Tehran is staging and the private contacts in Doha shows how fragile and reversible the arrangement is.