Tehran says it won’t begin talks on final deal until hostilities end in Lebanon and Washington waives oil sanctions and releases frozen Iranian funds.
US Vice President JD Vance says Iran’s public denials of ongoing talks amount to a deliberate “Persian negotiating tactic,” claiming that technical talks between Washington and Tehran are underway.
“There were scheduled talks, really technical talks, building on the negotiation that we’ve already had. Those are definitely happening tomorrow,” Vance said during an interview on The Michael Knowles Show published on Tuesday.
He said he found Tehran’s public statements “fascinating and frustrating”, noting that Iranian officials deny peace talks while acknowledging technical discussions.
“They’ll say, ‘No, no, there aren’t peace talks ongoing, but there are technical talks between the United States and Iran about the peace deal’,” he added. “It’s a Persian negotiating tactic and a Persian rhetorical device that I don’t understand.”
White House envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled to Doha after Trump announced Monday that Iran requested a meeting in the Qatari capital. Iran, however, has denied that any direct talks with Washington are scheduled, while saying consultations with intermediaries continue.
Iran says it will hold indirect talks on the US-Iran deal with mediator Qatar, to discuss implementing its MoU with the US, and the release of frozen Iranian assets.
Tehran also warned it would respond to any US breach of the agreement aimed at ending the war.
Watch the comments below:
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged countries to cover a $100m gap in funding for the UN Palestinian refugee agency, also known as UNRWA, saying the body was nearing a breaking point after deep cost-cutting and austerity measures.
“They cannot keep going like this without urgent backing and financial support from member states,” Guterres told an ad hoc meeting of the General Assembly, noting that the agency had taken decisive steps to implement reforms and update its policy on outside and political activities following Israel’s accusations.
“UNRWA is a stabilising force in an age of instability,” he said, rejecting what he called continued efforts to undermine the agency through “disinformation, smear campaigns, legislative actions, operational restrictions, diplomatic roadblocks and more”.
UNRWA operates in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, providing aid, schooling, healthcare, social services and shelter to 2.6 million Palestinians.
Israel has repeatedly accused the agency of showing leniency towards or cooperating with Palestinian armed groups, though it has not presented publicly verifiable evidence to support those claims.
UNRWA has strongly rejected the allegations.
Scott Uehlinger, a US national security expert, says Washington is using indirect technical talks with Iran in Doha to manage looming tensions over the Strait of Hormuz, despite the absence of direct negotiations.
“I think that the main point of the American negotiators is to try to use the technical talks, which have already been scheduled, as a way of heading off some difficulties, which are clearly lying in the future,” Uehlinger told Al Jazeera.
The former CIA officer said those difficulties centre on Iran’s “diplomatic gambit” to control the Strait of Hormuz. “The US is trying to … clarify what Iran’s actual role is in the strait, according to the MoU, and [reach] further details that perhaps would be included in a future agreement,” Uehlinger added.
Uehlinger said the best deal Washington can hope to get would be, as outlined in the MoU, that Qatar along with other Gulf states, “could negotiate with Iran and form a coalition, which would then basically regulate traffic in and out” of the key waterway.
The top Iranian negotiator has also defended Tehran’s decision to hold talks with the US in his wide-ranging interview with state media.
We have more from the Iranian speaker’s interview to state media:
As we’ve been reporting, Iran’s top negotiator and Parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has been speaking to state media on the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with the US.
He said Iran will continue to assert sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, adding that the MoU only provides a temporary 60-day exemption from fees for maritime services in the waterway.
“These are our territorial waters,” Ghalibaf said, according to the Press TV website. “We will not allow the United States to create controversy or sophistry by claiming that Iran has militarized the Strait of Hormuz.”
He added that Iran “will never, under any circumstances, retreat from this position”.
Ghalibaf described the waterway as “a divine gift that God granted us during this war” and “our greatest instrument of power”.
While officials describe the framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel as a roadmap towards ending hostilities, critics question whether Lebanon traded accountability for a ceasefire.
This video looks at what happened during the three months of the fragile “ceasefire”: continued Israeli air strikes and more than 1 million people displaced.
Watch below:
Hello, and welcome to our live coverage of the United States and Israel’s war on Iran, as well as Israel’s attacks on Lebanon.
Stay with us for all the latest news and analysis from across the Middle East and beyond.
You can find our updates from Tuesday, June 30 here.
Trump says Iran wants to meet in Qatar after attacks, but Tehran says it is sending a delegation only over frozen funds.
Has Iran’s regional deterrence been permanently degraded, or is its proxy network mutating into a resilient force?
Iran says it will hold indirect talks with mediator Qatar, to discuss implementing its MoU deal with the US.
Iran says it will send an expert delegation to Doha to follow up on the release of frozen Iranian funds.
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