The United States and Iran separately announced on Monday that they would send delegations to Qatar this week, although Tehran insisted it had not agreed to meet with the US "at any level" after attacks across the Persian Gulf over the weekend cast fresh doubt over negotiations to end the war.
US President Donald Trump said the Islamic Republic had requested a meeting with US counterparts and that they planned to convene on Tuesday in Doha, Qatar.
However, one of Iran's senior negotiators denied that talks had been scheduled. The spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry said Tehran was sending its delegation to Qatar, a key mediator in the negotiations, to discuss the terms of the interim deal without involving the US.
Hostilities escalated in recent days in the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil had passed before the war began. After four days of exchanging strikes, both sides appeared to pause their attacks on Monday.
The US and Iran agreed to an interim deal earlier this month requiring Tehran to dilute its stockpile of enriched uranium. The agreement also waives US-backed oil sanctions on the country, guarantees freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and gives both sides 60 days to negotiate a broader settlement.
After Trump wrote on social media on Monday morning that the US and Iran planned to meet, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News' Fox & Friends that special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, were flying to Qatar.
Pakistan, another key mediator, had also said talks between Iran and the US would resume on Tuesday.
However, Kazem Gharibabadi, a senior Iranian negotiator, said in comments published by Iranian state media that no talks had been confirmed. Esmail Baghaei, spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, said the Iranian delegation was travelling to Qatar this week to discuss the planned release of frozen Iranian assets and other issues related to the interim deal.
"There are no negotiation meetings with the US side at any level scheduled in the coming days," Baghaei said.
His remarks, however, left open the possibility of indirect messages being passed between the two sides through Qatari mediators.
During the war, which began on 28 February, Iran's attacks and threats halted the movement of cargo ships and oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, triggering a global energy crisis.
In recent days, Iran has twice attacked vessels in the strait, including a tanker carrying Qatari crude, following efforts to open Oman's territorial waters to both inbound and outbound traffic from the Persian Gulf.
The attacks prompted retaliatory US airstrikes and raised concerns that negotiations aimed at formally ending the war could be derailed. Iran also launched drone and missile attacks targeting Bahrain and Kuwait on Sunday.
Although the strait lies within the territorial waters of Iran and Oman, it has long been recognised as an international waterway.
The Trump administration believed on Monday that both sides were stepping back from the recent exchange of strikes and that commercial vessels could once again move freely through the Strait of Hormuz, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.
The US official also said Qatar planned to release $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets, which would be used to purchase US food products for the Iranian people.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had earlier announced the expected release of the funds in comments published by the state-run IRNA news agency.
Pezeshkian, a reformist within Iran's theocratic system, is the highest-ranking Iranian official to publicly refer to the planned release of the Qatari-held funds.
Oman's Foreign Minister, Badr al-Busaidi, said on Monday that Oman and Iran were considering charging service-related fees for commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
He said the services could include maritime safety measures, pollution prevention, navigational assistance and emergency preparedness for incidents such as fires. Speaking to Radio Monte Carlo, al-Busaidi stressed that Oman did not support imposing transit fees on ships.
"This is internationally forbidden," he said, "and we are abiding by these rules."
No transit fees have ever been charged in the strait, and other Gulf Arab states, along with the US, strongly oppose imposing such costs.
An Iranian official warned France against "provocations" on Monday after French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X that France and its partners were coordinating efforts to clear mines from the Strait of Hormuz.
Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's deputy foreign minister, responded on X that, under the interim agreement, "demining is carried out solely by Iran and by no other country".
Macron made the remarks after welcoming Oman's Sultan Haitham bin Tariq ahead of high-level diplomatic talks in Paris.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun separately said on Monday that Lebanon was determined to deploy troops along its entire southern border under a framework agreement with Israel signed on Friday. He made the remarks during a meeting with Admiral Brad Cooper, the top US military commander in the Middle East.
The agreement was rejected by the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, which triggered the latest war with Israel on 2 March by firing rockets across Lebanon's southern border into northern Israel.
The deal requires Hezbollah to disarm before Israel withdraws its troops from southern Lebanon. Israel has agreed initially to withdraw from several "pilot zones", where the Lebanese army would then deploy, although no details have been released about how the arrangement will operate.
Hezbollah officials have warned that attempts to implement the agreement could lead to civil war.