Trump to meet Iran war mediator Qatar, no imminent deal seen to end the war
US President Donald Trump will meet Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani in Washington on Monday as efforts to end the Iran war intensify following last week's midterm elections, although senior US and Gulf officials have cast doubt on the prospects of an imminent deal.
With no victory in sight more than eight months into the conflict he launched alongside Israel on February 28, Trump has played down the possibility of major fighting resuming soon but remains unwilling to accept Iran's existing ceasefire proposal.
Mutual attacks have continued, with the US striking Iran's Qeshm island overnight, according to Iranian state media, while Iran has attacked tankers in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz this month. Iran-allied Houthi forces in Yemen have also targeted Saudi Arabia.
Diplomatic moves
Sheikh Mohammed, who also serves as Qatar's foreign minister, is scheduled to meet Trump and Vice President JD Vance later on Monday after visiting Tehran last week.
Iran's proposal to end the war calls for an end to the US blockade of its ports, the lifting of some sanctions and a halt to airstrikes in exchange for Tehran ending its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Talks on Iran's nuclear programme and other sanctions would follow.
The US has repeatedly rejected the proposal. Iran has said the plan could be condensed into a two-day timeframe, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday described Tehran's conditions as "outrageous and ridiculous and really not realistic".
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei defended the proposal on Monday, calling it the most reasonable offer on the table.
Senior US Republicans, including Vance, have blamed their party's poor performance in last week's elections on the Iran war. However, despite mounting domestic political pressure to end the conflict, Rubio said he did not believe a diplomatic breakthrough was imminent.
A senior United Arab Emirates official, Anwar Gargash, echoed that assessment on Monday, saying a comprehensive political settlement between the US and Iran appeared difficult to achieve.
"We should... prepare for a long period of uncertainty in which neither a decisive resolution nor stable regional order can be taken for granted," he said.
Vance, who led negotiations for a short-lived ceasefire in June, is also scheduled to meet Al-Thani. Qatar has played a key mediating role since the early stages of the war, conveying messages between the two sides and proposing ways to bridge their differences.
Military action
Sunday night's strikes on Qeshm island did not affect vital infrastructure or services, a provincial official told Iran's semi-official Fars news agency on Monday. The US has not commented on the reports in Iranian media.
Attacks on tankers in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz increased sharply in October and have continued at their highest rate since the start of the war, according to figures from international maritime agencies released last week.
On Sunday, Iran said a tanker had struck a mine east of the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran typically does not acknowledge responsibility for attacks on vessels that report being hit by projectiles.
The war has triggered a global energy shortage, prompted Iranian strikes on Gulf Arab countries, spilled over into a major Israeli offensive in Lebanon during the spring and summer, and reignited Yemen's long-frozen civil war.
On Sunday, Yemen's Iran-allied Houthi group said it had struck an office building belonging to Saudi state oil company Aramco in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia's Energy Ministry said an attack had blown out windows across several floors of a building in the city's financial district but did not attribute responsibility for the incident.