Qatar’s prime minister will visit Tehran on Thursday to relaunch diplomacy between the United States and Iran (Geo News).
The visit follows an exchange of recriminations over Washington’s promise to increase economic pressure on Tehran by targeting its trade partners with sanctions.
Qatar’s role
Qatar is a Gulf neighbour of Iran and a US ally, and has served as a back-channel negotiator between the warring parties. It played a direct role in securing the June ceasefire that briefly halted hostilities.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani plans to discuss ways to de-escalate regional tensions.
Where things stand
The war nears its sixth month with fighting largely paused and no diplomatic breakthrough in sight.
The two sides remain at odds over control of the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint Tehran has used as leverage. Iran says the strait will remain shut unless its conditions are met.
A memorandum of understanding broke down partly over differences concerning the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman through which one-fifth of globally consumed oil and gas passed before the war.
Two mediators, one week
Qatar’s visit comes three days after Field Marshal Asim Munir was in Tehran on Pakistan’s own mediation effort, meeting the president, the foreign minister and the supreme leader’s representative on the Supreme National Security Council.
Pakistan brokered a two-week ceasefire on April 8; Qatar brokered the June one. Both collapsed.
That two separate intermediaries are now shuttling to the same capital in the same week indicates both how stalled the position is and how much regional appetite there is to end it. Oil has fallen for four consecutive days on the prospect.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office separately rejected reports that Munir visited Iran as an envoy of President Trump, saying the trip was part of Pakistan’s own mediation efforts.
