DOHA: Iran's top negotiator and its foreign minister were in Doha for talks with Qatar's prime minister on a potential deal with the US to end the three-month-old war, an official briefed on the visit said on Monday, after Washington and Tehran played down hopes for an imminent breakthrough. The official briefed on the Iranians' Doha visit said the discussions focused primarily on the Strait of Hormuz and Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium while Iran's central bank governor attended to discuss the potential release of frozen Iranian funds as part of a final deal. Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said earlier that nuclear issues would only be negotiated on if the framework accord is agreed first.
Trump has said his key aim in the war is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon with its highly enriched uranium. Tehran has consistently denied it has plans to do that. The two sides remain at odds on several other issues, such as Israel's war in Lebanon with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia and Tehran's demands for the lifting of sanctions and the release of tens of billions of dollars of Iranian oil revenues frozen in foreign banks.
Baghaei said the potential Iran deal contained no specific details on management of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied gas usually flows. Iran will not charge tolls for ships to pass through but there will be a cost for services offered such as navigation and steps to protect the environment, he said, under a protocol to be agreed with Oman, which lies on the opposite shore of the waterway. Citing a Middle East diplomatic source, Japan's Nikkei newspaper reported the US and Iran were discussing a plan to open the strait about 30 days after reaching a deal to end hostilities. Iran would then clear mines from the strait during a 30-day window, after which ships from all countries could navigate freely and safely, Nikkei reported.
Since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28, only a few dozen vessels have been passing through the Strait of Hormuz compared with 125 to 140 daily previously. Iran's state TV said on Monday that 32 vessels and five oil tankers passed through the strait in the past 24 hours with the authorisation of Iran's Revolutionary Guards naval forces. The standoff has caused a spike in oil prices and driven up the costs of fuel, fertiliser and food. Oil prices fell more than 4% to two-week lows amid optimism that a deal might come soon. — Reuters
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