US officials believe President Trump could order a return to “major combat operations” against Iran after the midterm elections, as Qatar-mediated negotiations have made little progress, Axios reported on Tuesday.
Iran has maintained that it’s ready to fully open the Strait of Hormuz and enter negotiations on a final deal if the US ends its blockade of Iranian ports, lifts sanctions on Iran, and releases some Iranian frozen funds, commitments that the US agreed to under the Memorandum of Understanding signed back in June.
But the Trump administration is reportedly demanding nuclear concessions from Iran before any of that happens, and Iranian officials say they would only consider doing so once the terms of the MoU were fulfilled.
Sources told Axios reporter Barak Ravid that Ali al-Thawadi, a Qatari diplomat mediating between the two sides, held talks in New York on Monday with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi and later with President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in Washington, a meeting that Vice President JD Vance also briefly attended. The officials discussed a Qatari proposal to bridge the gaps between the two sides, but there was no breakthrough.
The report came a day after Trump denied the idea that he had offered sanctions relief to Iran in exchange for nuclear concessions, rejecting an earlier Axios report, also written by Ravid. “Axios just released a story that ‘Trump’ offered Sanctions Relief and Frozen Funds to Iran. This is untrue. I offered them NOTHING!” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
For their part, Iranian officials have said they’re ready to face another round of US strikes, though they remain open to diplomacy. Mohsen Rezaei, head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Tuesday that Trump was caught in a “quagmire” and unable to decide how to get out of it.
“Trump is caught in a quagmire where he can neither negotiate nor fight,” Rezaei said. “Iran’s conditions have been conveyed to the United States, but Trump is unable to make a decision, and the United States, out of desperation, has resorted to an air siege in the military war.”
