U.S. and Iranian officials held indirect, low-level technical talks in Doha, Qatar, on Wednesday, but Tehran ruled out any direct high-level meeting, leaving the central dispute over control of the Strait of Hormuz unresolved two weeks after the two countries signed a ceasefire framework.
Wednesday's session, mediated by Qatari officials, focused on implementing the Islamabad Memorandum, the 14-point agreement President Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed June 17 to end four months of war. It came a day after Qatar's prime minister met U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to lay groundwork for the talks — without any Iranian officials in the room.
What happened
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the Doha talks covered implementation of the ceasefire agreement and the release of Iran's frozen assets, but stressed that "no meeting at any level with the American side has been scheduled for the coming days." The indirect format underscores how far apart Washington and Tehran remain even after agreeing to stop fighting.
The sharpest disagreement centers on the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of the world's oil passes. Under the Islamabad Memorandum, Iran is meant to help "define the future administration" of the waterway. But Iran's top negotiator, Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf, said on state television that "the sovereignty of the Strait of Hormuz lies with Iran and Oman, and traffic in the Strait is subject to arrangements determined by Iran." Iran's navy has since stood up its own Persian Gulf Strait Authority and warned vessels against using routes outside those it approves; state media reported a foreign container ship ran aground after ignoring Tehran's designated route.
Why it matters
U.S. Vice President JD Vance pushed back directly on Iran's position, saying, "This is not going to end in a place where the Iranians are collecting tolls on ships going through the Strait of Hormuz." The standoff over who polices the strait is the clearest sign that the June 17 ceasefire papered over, rather than resolved, the conflict's core disputes — and it remains the single biggest variable hanging over global oil markets, which have already priced in a durable peace.