Iran stays in peace talks despite first US strikes since ceasefire
Iran remained in peace negotiations with the US on Tuesday despite American airstrikes that killed four Iranian soldiers, the first US military action since the April 8 ceasefire. The Iranian foreign ministry denounced the attack as a violation of the ceasefire but did not withdraw from talks mediated by Pakistan and Qatar. Negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf continued efforts in Doha to unlock over $12 billion in frozen Iranian assets, the last major dispute before a broader agreement.
Iran remained in peace negotiations with the United States on Tuesday despite American airstrikes that killed four Iranian soldiers, the first US military action since the April 8 ceasefire.
The US bombed Iranian targets on Tuesday, targeting missile launchers and efforts to lay fresh mines in the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian foreign ministry denounced the attack as "an act of bad faith" and "a definitive violation of the ceasefire," but did not pull out of talks mediated by Pakistan and Qatar.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's parliamentary speaker and chief negotiator, remained in Doha for a second day on Tuesday seeking to unlock more than $12 billion in frozen Iranian assets, described as the last serious dispute between Tehran and Washington before a broader agreement. The consultations in Qatar have resulted in progress, but Iranian MP Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani claimed a plan for $12 billion to be transferred from Qatar to a Russian account before being sent to Iran had been thwarted by the US at the last minute. Ardestani warned that if the war restarted, Iran knew the whereabouts of the hotels in Doha and Dubai used by US negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, and "next time they would be hit."
The talks are operating under a framework that allocates a 60-day period to negotiate fresh constraints on Iran's nuclear programme and a separate 30-day timeframe for the US to lift the blockade of Iranian oil ports and for Iran to allow commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, restoring maritime traffic to levels from before the war that began on February 28.
Brent oil futures climbed 4% after news of the renewed fighting. In a sign that President Donald Trump recognizes the conflict has reached a decisive point, he is convening a rare cabinet meeting at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, only the second time Trump has visited the compound in his second term.
Iran's supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his father after he was killed by US-Israeli strikes on the opening day of the war, called for unity among Muslim countries in a statement marking the start of the hajj. Khamenei predicted the elimination of Israel by 2040, saying: "The shaken Zionist regime and the cancerous tumour of Israel are approaching the final stages of their wretched existence."