US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he had agreed to continue further talks with Iran, while again claiming that the ongoing ceasefire between the two countries had ended. There have been no direct talks between the United States and Iran since last month, but after renewed tit-for-tat attacks this week, a delegation from the mediator country Qatar has arrived in Tehran, Iranian media reported.
The fresh two days of attacks and counterattacks came a little over three weeks after Washington and Tehran signed a deal aimed at turning a months-long ceasefire into a lasting peace, raising fears once again of a full-scale regional war. In a post on his social-media platform Truth Social on Friday, Trump wrote: “The Islamic Republic of Iran wants to continue talks with us. We have agreed to this. But the United States has made clear to them that the ceasefire is over.” Earlier this week, at a NATO summit, Trump also said the ceasefire had ended, adding of Iran: “Talking with them is just a waste of time.”
After signing the memorandum, US and Iranian representatives held one round of direct talks in Switzerland, along with indirect talks in Qatar, but there has been no sign of diplomatic progress so far. On Friday, Qatar’s emir and Egypt’s president discussed the situation, with Doha backing continued diplomatic efforts. Meanwhile, Iran has claimed it attacked US installations in Qatar, while the Gulf state has alleged that Iran attacked one of its oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Tasnim news agency said that, following Tuesday’s incident, a Qatari delegation was in Tehran in an effort to strengthen Qatar’s role as mediator. After that incident, Qatar had condemned what it called an “unacceptable attack” by Iran on one of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers, an allegation Iran denied.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a mediator in the conflict, spoke by phone with Qatar’s emir on Friday; his office said in a statement that they discussed the recent tensions. Sharif also spoke with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and called for protecting the “hard-won peace,” he said on X. Iran’s chief negotiator with the United States, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, however, took a tough line. “Ending the war is a priority for the countries of the world,” he told Iran’s ISNA news agency. “But everyone must know that this conflict will never end through Iran’s surrender.” He added that the Iranian people were fully prepared to defend themselves.
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