Qatar Says US and Iran Are Reviewing Draft Proposals to End the War

An official briefed on the talks told Reuters that the version under discussion is a draft US-Iran deal that has been negotiated over the past eight days. According to Reuters, the mediators later returned to Doha, and the same official expects responses from Washington and Tehran within 36 hours. A senior Iranian official said there was no deadline for exchanging messages.

Qatar's foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed al-Ansari, said both sides were reviewing the proposals and that talks were continuing. "If there were no glimmer of hope, there would be no negotiations," he said, adding that as a mediator Qatar could not lose hope.

Araghchi said on Monday that indirect talks with Washington were going through mediators, Arab News reported. "Qatar and Pakistan are playing a very active mediating role in these negotiations," he told the official IRNA news agency.

Still Far Apart

Optimism in Washington has not been matched in Tehran. A senior Iranian official told Reuters that the two sides remain far from an agreement and that Iran will not accept what he called Washington's "excessive demands". Tehran says the Strait of Hormuz will stay closed until three conditions are met: oil sanctions are waived, the US naval blockade ends and frozen Iranian funds are released. Nuclear talks could begin only after that, the official said.

Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, called the US response "not convincing" and said Washington "must fully and explicitly address Iran's seven conditions and act upon them", according to Reuters.

The diplomacy is running alongside continued military activity. A US official said American forces carried out "defensive" strikes overnight on surface-to-air missiles on Iran's Qeshm island in the Strait of Hormuz, and another official described them as limited and not a sign of a return to major combat. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had shot down a US MQ-9 drone and two other drones near the strait.

On the US side, President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday, a day before the midterm elections, that a deal "could happen" and that "Iran wants a settlement, as soon as possible". Vice President JD Vance told reporters: "We've certainly made some progress. We'll see if we can make some more." Trump has also kept up threats of renewed military action, telling Fox News: "If we have to, we'll have to."

Why It Matters for Gulf Business

The outcome of the talks bears directly on Gulf energy flows, shipping and investment. Oil prices, driven sharply higher by Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, fell more than 7% on Monday on hopes of an end to the eight-month-old conflict, Arab News reported, and have stayed volatile as each new statement comes out of Washington and Tehran.

At ADIPEC in Abu Dhabi this week, energy executives have described stockpiling supplies and rerouting cargo to keep operating through the disruption. A deal that reopens Hormuz would ease those costs. A breakdown in talks would raise the risk of renewed strikes, and Iranian officials have warned they would respond in the region and beyond.

Reuters also reported that senior officials from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan met Iranian counterparts in Tehran last week, the first high-level contacts of that kind since August, and that Araghchi said talks with Saudi Arabia on regional security arrangements were continuing.