Iran says it won’t meet with U.S. envoys, clouding prospects for peace deal
By Andrew Mills and Elwely Elwelly
DOHA/DUBAI, June 30 (Reuters) – Iran said on Tuesday it would not meet senior U.S. envoys who flew to the region after the outbreak of hostilities, casting a shadow over the possibility of a lasting peace between the two countries.
Iranian officials also said the two sides needed to resolve the terms of the ceasefire they signed two weeks ago in order to address more difficult issues such as “possible limits of the nuclear program.”
The developments showed that the two sides are far apart on the key pillars of the initial framework, which called for Iran to lift its control of the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for financial incentives and launched 60-day talks to work on a permanent peace deal.
US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Doha for what the White House described as “high-level” talks, but Iran and host Qatar said they would meet with mediators rather than the Iranians.
Qatar said Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani was among those who will meet with Witkoff and Kushner.
“No meetings at any level are planned with the American side in the coming days,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said.
According to Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari, the two countries were to begin low-level technical talks.
TRUMP SAID HE WAS CONSIDERING A STRIKE
According to the Wall Street Journal, based on US sources familiar with the discussion, Trump, looking for ways to break the deadlock, evaluated a return to all-out war and held talks with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chief of Staff General Dan Caine about launching more attacks. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.
However, the report stated that Trump, who publicly threatened Iran with more attacks, decided to give more time to diplomacy for now.
On February 28, shipping through the strait, where one fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas was handled before the start of the war, partially resumed.
But Iranian officials, along with U.S. ally Oman on the other side of the strategic waterway, have said they have the right to manage traffic and will impose tolls in mid-August when the 60-day period expires.
“The sovereignty of the Strait of Hormuz belongs to Iran and Oman, and traffic in the Strait is subject to regulations determined by Iran,” Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Baqir Qalibaf said on state television. he said.
US Vice President J.D. Vance has stated that Iran will be prevented from collecting tolls through the international waterway, telling The Michael Knowles Show: “This is not going to end up in a place where the Iranians are collecting tolls from ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.”
Vance also said in the interview, recorded Monday but released Tuesday, that oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz had returned to pre-war levels and even exceeded that level on some days, without providing figures.
Despite the uncertainty, oil prices have fallen since the weekend when the United States bombed Iranian military facilities in response to drone attacks on commercial ships and Iran attacked U.S. military facilities in Kuwait and Bahrain.
But fragile economies could remain at risk from increases in food and fuel prices even after energy markets ease, the UN Trade and Development Agency said on Tuesday.
The war has increased global inflation and put Trump under political pressure ahead of midterm elections in November that will determine control of the US Congress. Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are urging gasoline retailers to lower prices.
The interim agreement between the United States and Iran also provides for an end to the conflict in Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
But Lebanon’s powerful parliamentary speaker, Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah, cast doubt on a separate US-brokered framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel to stop that war.
Analysts said the agreement risked stalemate by tying Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon to Hezbollah’s disarmament.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaus, Writing by Aidan Lewis and Daniel Trotta; Editing by Timothy Heritage, Gareth Jones, Sanjeev Miglani and Stephen Coates)
