Qatari PM holds Tehran talks

DUBAI: The prime minister of Qatar visited Tehran on Thursday in a bid to revive diplomatic channels, as the US and Iran traded recriminations over Washington’s latest sanctions drive, described by one Iranian official as “all-out economic war”.

Qatar has served as a back-channel negotiator for the warring parties and played a direct role in securing a June ceasefire that briefly led to a cessation of hostilities.

Qatari PM Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is also his country’s foreign minister, held talks in Tehran with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, according to Iran’s foreign ministry.

The two discussed a proposed phased framework that includes establishing a temporary joint Iranian-Omani shipping corridor through the strait and carrying out a joint project to clear mines from the waterway, Qatar’s foreign ministry said.

The two officials also reviewed the latest developments in the region and efforts to de-escalate tensions and create conditions for dialogue, the Qatari ministry said.

The visit came even as the White House maintained there were currently no negotiations happening between the US and Iran, as Tehran had not yet “come to the table in a meaningful way”.

Iran has repeatedly said it has never left the negotiating table.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that President Donald Trump “continues to retain all options on the table” with regard to Iran.

Meanwhile, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf called on Thursday for national unity in the face of what he described as “all-out economic war”, warning that internal division was “exactly what the enemy wants”.

Ebrahim Azizi, the head of the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, said the sanctions were an “inhumane and hostile act” which nonetheless had lost their effectiveness.

Tehran has lived under various forms of US sanctions since the Islamic revolution in 1979.

On Wednesday, the IRGC said that Iran and Oman had agreed on how to share the Strait of Hormuz and its revenues, but a senior Iranian source later said the two countries were still working on the details of an agreement.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2026