Trump says US and Iran will meet to negotiate after days of strikes

After days of US and Iranian strikes tested the fragile ceasefire agreement they signed this month and raised questions about the state of talks to reach a broader peace, President Donald Trump said Monday that the two sides would meet the following day in Qatar, at Iran’s request.

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that his envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, had “already left or about to leave, so we’ll see how that goes … The meeting in Doha is going to be perhaps important, perhaps not. We’re going to find out.”

Iran, however, said that its negotiators had no plans to meet with the US team in the Qatari capital.

“In the coming days, we will have no negotiation meetings at any level with the American side, and the trip by US representatives to Qatar is unrelated to the trip of the Iranian delegation,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said in a press briefing, according to state-run Iranian media.

Baqaei said technical talks with the US had yet to start, though Iran is seeking clarification of parts of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two earlier this month.

Specifically, he said, an Iranian technical team would meet with Qatari officials about the unfreezing of $6 billion of frozen Iranian assets held in a Doha bank.

The money has become the latest sticking point in the vaguely worded MOU, which, despite tit-for-tat attacks in recent days, was to initiate a 60-day period of negotiations over a permanent end to the war.

Under the memorandum, the assets were to be released as soon as that document was signed, under “mutually agree(d)” procedures. “Such funds, whether retained in the original account or transferred,” it says, “shall be made fully usable for payment to any ultimate beneficiary designated by the central bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Since Trump signed the agreement June 18, both he and Vice President JD Vance, who negotiated the document, have said the money would be released only under US control and would be used to purchase US agricultural goods to benefit American farmers.

Iranian officials have denied that was part of the agreement, saying that the government in Tehran would decide how to spend its money.

In public remarks Monday in the city of Qom, President Masoud Pezeshkian said the $6 billion is part of a total of $12 billion in Iranian funds held by Qatar and that its release to Iran, together with the lifting of oil sanctions last week, were part of the MOU, the state news agency IRNA reported.

The conflicting narratives followed several days of military attacks by both sides that threatened to undo the fragile truce. The proximate cause was differing interpretations of what they had agreed over opening the Strait of Hormuz to maritime traffic. It began Thursday when Iran fired on a ship it said transited along an unauthorised route without Tehran’s permission.

In response, the US attacked Iranian military installations near the strait. The exchanges of fire continued for several days, with each accusing the other of violating the ceasefire.

A US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter publicly, said Sunday that “both sides will stand down for now and vessels can move freely.”

Neither side announced any new attacks Monday.

“This entire conflict has been reduced to a war over weaponised narratives with weekend spikes of armed escalation. This however doesn’t mean that the negotiation process is grounded to a halt,” said Andreas Krieg, a Middle East analyst and lecturer at Kings College London, adding that there was a need to “fill the blanks” in the MOU.

None of the talks so far have focused on Iran’s nuclear program, Trump’s rationale for starting the war. “The Iranians are likely kicking the nuclear can down the road,” Krieg said.

A push to end the conflict between Israel and Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah in Lebanon also figures prominently in Trump’s initial agreement with Iran.

On Friday, Israel, Lebanon and the United States agreed to a “trilateral framework” declaring their intent to end the fighting in Lebanon, but Hezbollah did not sign on.

In the agreement, Israel and Lebanon affirmed each other’s right to exist in peace and the shared objective of a “secure, rebuilt Lebanon, under full Lebanese state sovereignty.”

The US military will have a direct role in monitoring actions by both the Lebanese Armed Forces and Israel Defense Forces, with US troops on the ground in both countries, a US official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to give sensitive context on the US role.

“We’ll call balls and strikes, if you will,” the official said, “so our political leadership can apply whatever pressure needs to be applied on either side to get them to hold up their end.”

The head of US Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper, is not taking a direct role in overseeing either side, but officials with Centcom would report any violations to the Trump administration, which would then engage, the official said.

On Monday afternoon, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Witkoff briefed the full House and Senate on the administration’s peace talks with Iran, congressional aides said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive details. The briefings were unclassified and over the phone.

In recent weeks, lawmakers from both parties have complained that the administration has not kept Congress informed on the status of negotiations with Tehran. The House and Senate have passed a resolution intended to block Trump from resuming the war, though the administration has contended the measure doesn’t have the force of law.

After attending the briefing with Rubio and Witkoff, Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (New York), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, criticized the agreement as ambiguous and slanted toward Iran. The MOU, Meeks said in an interview, achieved nothing the administration “could not have … accomplished without going to war.”

He said he asked Rubio and Witkoff to explain how the administration defined an open Strait of Hormuz, given Iran’s threats to charge a toll on companies for safe passage. The officials, Meeks said, asserted there would be no tolls. A congressional aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the session, said Rubio had told the Senate earlier that Iran had not abandoned the option of a toll but that the Trump administration would not allow one.

Meeks said he and the leaders of other national security committees had a separate classified briefing Monday with Deputy National Security Adviser Andy Baker. Other lawmakers, Meeks said, left the House briefing “scratching their heads about this agreement.”

With some 48 days now left in what the MOU says is an “extendable” 60-day negotiating window, it’s unclear what progress has been made working out the nuances of the final deal - which includes resolving the contentious issue of nuclear enrichment and disposition of stockpiled enriched material, as well as agreeing on a schedule for ending all sanctions on Iran.

In a social media post Monday, Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said that officials from Iran and Oman, which both border the strait, had held their first meeting of the “joint Hormuz committee” to “exchange views” on the future management of the Strait of Hormuz, as spelled out in the memorandum. Oman’s Foreign Ministry said officials discussed ways to “improve coordination” on issues related to the waterway, a chokepoint to the Persian Gulf.

The sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, met in France Monday with President Emmanuel Macron. The French president said the two are working for de-escalation in the Middle East and “decided to collaborate jointly,” along with partners, on removing mines Iran has placed in the waterway.

Gharibabadi, however, said all demining would be carried out “exclusively by Iran” and warned Macron not to “complicate” the issue with “provocations.”

On Sunday, Iran claimed that it had a right to full control of the Strait of Hormuz, brushing aside Trump’s threats to “complete the job” of the war he launched four months ago if Tehran did not relent on ensuring free and safe passage for all. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ navy warned vessels Monday that they could pass through the strait only by using a specific route south of Iran’s Larak Island, state television reported.

MarineTraffic, which provides ship tracking intelligence and analytics, said the Strait of Hormuz remained open over the weekend, with 108 verified crossings recorded between June 26 and 28. The daily prewar average transits totaled 130 or more.

Adam Taylor, Tara Copp and Noah Robertson contributed to this report.