Turkey's Fidan and Qatar's PM coordinate on Iran-US negotiations as mediator trio remains active

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held a telephone call on Thursday with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, during which the two reviewed the positions of the parties and the latest stage reached in negotiations between Tehran and Washington. Turkish Foreign Ministry sources confirmed the call but provided no further detail on its content.

Turkey and Qatar have emerged as two of the three main external mediators in the Iran-US diplomatic process, alongside Pakistan. The Qatari PM has recently held direct meetings with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance in Washington to push the diplomacy forward. Iran's parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi have both visited Doha for talks on a potential deal. Fidan told Nikkei Asia in an interview published the previous week that a US-Iran agreement was 'closer than ever' and that Turkey was ready to help implement any accord.

The active mediation comes at a moment of stalemate. A ceasefire between the US-Israel coalition and Iran took effect on April 8, but negotiations over a permanent settlement have deadlocked; one round of talks in Pakistan ended without progress. US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 disrupted key shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz and damaged energy infrastructure, pushing up oil and gas prices and raising fears of renewed inflation.