Iranian officials were in Doha on Sunday for the third day of talks with Qatari mediators on a potential deal to open the Strait of Hormuz as the US and Israel continue to prepare for renewed attacks on Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed that Iran was continuing talks with Qatar but that it had no plans for direct talks with US officials. “There has been no meeting with the American delegation, nor has one been planned,” he said.
Araghchi said the talks with Qatar have focused on Iran’s proposal to fully open the Strait of Hormuz within seven days and that Tehran has agreed it could open the waterway within two days, though there’s no sign the US is willing to agree to Tehran’s conditions.
Araghchi said Iran hoped “there is enough rationality on the other side to prefer diplomacy to other options, but we are fully prepared for other options as well.”
Amid the talks between Qatar and Iran, Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Israel had completed its preparations for a renewed confrontation with Iran. Those preparations have included flying aircraft in Iraqi and Syrian airspace toward Iran’s border to rehearse potential attack routes, flights that could be an effort to provoke Iran into responding.
The report said that while Israel was prepared to strike Iran, the decision was ultimately up to President Trump, who was recently briefed by Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command, on military options for attacking Iran.
The Wall Street Journal reported recently that the US was preparing for a renewed bombing campaign by deploying a Patriot air defense system to Israel and moving other military assets around the region. Trump has signaled that the potential attacks will come after the November 3 US midterm election.
While the Trump administration is now suggesting it’s open to some sort of deal with Iran, the US was engaged in negotiations with Tehran both before the June 2025 and the current conflict, which began on February 28 with a US and Israeli sneak attack on the Islamic Republic that included the bombing of an elementary school and the killing of Iran’s supreme leader.
