ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Qatari delegation arrived in Tehran on Friday for talks with Iranian officials, state media reported, as mediators push to resuscitate stalled negotiations with the United States.
Headed by the foreign minister and a senior adviser to Qatar's prime minister, the delegation is set to discuss "bilateral relations” and “regional developments" with senior Iranian officials, state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.
Tehran has met with delegations in recent days amid mounting fears of a resumption in hostilities as the US-Iran war passes its eighth month mark.
Delegations from Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia arrived in Iran on Monday with regional security and the US and Israeli attacks on Iran topping the agenda, state media reported.
Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian discussed the war on the sidelines of a meeting in Moscow on Tuesday.
The reported Qatari visit comes a day after Iranian media said Iran had received a letter from US Vice President JD Vance addressed to security chief Mohsen Rezaei. The Wall Street Journal said the letter focused on a possible framework for negotiations rather than specific terms for a peace deal.
The New York Times reported that Vance "made the outreach in a letter sent last week via Qatari mediators and delivered Sunday to Gen. Mohsen Rezaei.” Tehran received the message but had yet to respond, a senior Iranian official told Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency on Thursday.
In mid-June, the United States and Iran signed the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, brokered by Pakistan, establishing a framework for ending hostilities and pursuing a broader agreement.
The understanding failed to produce a lasting settlement and prompted subsequent military escalations, with the US resuming its naval blockade of Iranian ports in mid-July and carrying out strikes on Iranian military targets.
Qatar and Pakistan have been mediating efforts to revive peace talks following a ceasefire agreement in April.
Khamenei has also held a series of meetings with senior officials in recent days, although he has yet to make a public appearance since succeeding his father, Ali Khamenei, who was killed on February 28, the first day of the US-Israeli war against Iran.
Iran retaliated with attacks on Israel and US assets across the region, as well as energy infrastructure in the Gulf and more than 1,000 attacks against the Kurdistan Region.
A US-imposed blockade has remained in effect in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway that saw the transit of one-fifth of global oil consumption prior to the war, with mounting attacks reported by maritime trackers this month.
On Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran was discussing a plan with both mediators, Qatar and Pakistan, to end the war and reopen the waterway.
“We remain in close and ongoing contact with intermediaries to review ideas that can ensure implementation of our 7-Day Plan in even less than a week,” he said on X.
Tehran insists that Washington meet seven conditions for reopening the strait, including a ceasefire across the region, unfreezing Iranian assets abroad, lifting sanctions on its oil revenues, and ending the US naval blockade.
Speaking ahead of November 3 midterm congressional elections, US President Donald Trump on Friday said that the war with Iran will end soon without outlining details.
"It's going to get wrapped up soon," Trump said in an interview with Kansas City radio station KCMO. "We need a guarantee there'll never be a nuclear weapon."
