Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that US envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who have arrived in Doha, will hold talks with mediators but will not meet directly with Iranian officials, contradicting Trump’s claim that Iran had “requested” a meeting in the Qatari capital.
“Mr. Steve Witfoff and Mr. Jared Kushner are here in Doha to meet with mediators, with Qatari officials, and the talks will be around all regional issues… including, of course, negotiations with Iran, but also including Lebanon,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari.
“They are not here for their negotiations with the Iranians … To the best of my knowledge, there are no direct meetings scheduled between the two parties in the coming days,” he added.
Trump claimed that the meeting would take place on Tuesday, while Iranian officials denied his statement. Trump administration officials are now telling media outlets that the US and Iran will hold indirect negotiations on Wednesday, with a senior US official telling reporters that they expect the US and Iranian delegations “to participate separately in technical talks with mediators from Qatar and Pakistan.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei also suggested indirect negotiations will take place, saying that what will “likely take place in Doha tomorrow is a discussion on the implementation of certain clauses of the MoU, including the release of Iran’s frozen assets, which will be conducted with Qatari officials.”
Baghaei added that he emphasized that no “meeting at any level with the American side has been scheduled for the coming days.”
The US and Iran are at odds over several core parts of the US-Iran MoU meant to end the war, including the Strait of Hormuz, the continued Israeli war in Lebanon, and the issue of Iran’s frozen funds. Iranian officials have said Tehran will not hold talks with the US on a long-term nuclear deal until these issues are worked out.
