Iran-US war latest: Trump talks up progress on peace deal – but Tehran remains silent – UK Times

Iran’s foreign minister has said the country’s talks with mediators in Doha have concluded.

Kazem Gharibabadi said it had reached several agreements with Qatari mediators, including to establish a channel to discuss breaches of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) and to use frozen Iranian funds for items the country needs.

Earlier on Wednesday, president Donald Trump insisted discussions with Iran were going “very well”.

A channel will be established to discuss breaches of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the US and Iran, Tehran has said.

Iran’s deputy foreign minister also said it has been agreed that $6bn in frozen Iranian funds will be used to buy items according to the country’s needs.

It comes after meetings between the US and mediators in Doha, with Iran refusing to sit down for further peace talks until previous commitments under the MoU had been upheld.

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the United States was getting along very ⁠well with Iran and that recent meetings in Qatar went well.

“The denuclearization of Iran is moving along well,” ⁠Trump told reporters. “They’ve had ​very ⁠good meetings, and we’ll see.”

The US and Iran held ⁠technical talks in the Qatari capital ​of Doha ⁠on Wednesday as ‌they seek to agree on the flow of shipping through the Strait ‌of Hormuz and secure ‌a lasting ceasefire, a source with direct knowledge of the talks and an ⁠Iranian official said.

Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff met the prime minister of Qatar — a mediator in the talks alongside Pakistan — to lay groundwork for the negotiations, but would not ‌be attending the discussions themselves, ​the source with direct knowledge ‌of the talks ⁠said.

“We’re getting along very well,” ⁠Trump said, adding Iran has “come a long ‌way.”

“I think ​they’re fine,” the ‌president added.

Iran will deliver an immediate and powerful response to any threat ⁠against its people or leadership, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in an X post.

“POTUS has committed ⁠the U.S. to muzzling its pets ⁠in Tel Aviv. If they ignore ⁠their master, Iran ‌will school them,” Araqchi said.

Araqchi’s X post was attached ‌to comments made ⁠by Israeli Defence Minister ⁠Israel Katz stating that Iran’s supreme ‌leader Mojtaba Khamenei was “marked ‌for death.”

A subtle but significant divergence is emerging between Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio regarding the implementation of President Donald Trump’s national security agenda, as both men potentially eye a 2028 presidential bid within a fractured Republican Party.

Their distinct backgrounds and policy experiences have led them down separate paths. Rubio, a senator with a long tenure and the son of Cuban immigrants, maintains a keen interest in Latin American affairs.

Vance, a Marine Corps veteran from the Midwest, served only two years in the Senate before becoming Trump’s 2024 running mate, advocating a platform against foreign military interventions.

Read our full story below.

President Donald Trump has said the US is getting along very ⁠well with Iran and that recent meetings in Qatar were a success.

“The denuclearization of Iran is moving along well,” ⁠Trump told reporters. “They’ve had ​very ⁠good meetings, and we’ll see.”

The US and Iran held ⁠technical talks in the Qatari capital ​of Doha as ‌they seek to agree on the flow of shipping through the Strait ‌of Hormuz and secure ‌a lasting ceasefire, a source with direct knowledge of the talks and an ⁠Iranian official said.

The talks in Doha are structured as sessions between chief negotiators and specialists, the source with knowledge of the talks said. They began on Tuesday night and were continuing on Wednesday, said the Iranian official.

Iran has stated publicly that its priorities include agreeing on management of the ⁠Strait of Hormuz and the release of $6 billion in Iranian frozen assets, and the Iranian official said the current round of discussions would focus on those two issues.

The stated priority of the US is to ensure the free flow of traffic through the strait, the source with knowledge of the talks said. Iran’s state media said on Wednesday a foreign container ship had run aground in the Strait of Hormuz after entering shallow waters outside the shipping route designated by Iranian authorities.

“Hormuz continues to reopen but it’s patchy, unpredictable, and not fully transparent,” said Vandana Hari, founder of oil market analysis provider Vanda ‌Insights.

Trump is reportedly weighing a return to war with Iran, discussing the possibility with senior officials like Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

Conversations have centered around what some officials call “finishing the job”, the paper reported.

While set to stick with diplomacy, Trump has reportedly told aides he believes another round of full-scale attacks could derail diplomacy and harm efforts to dismantle Iran’s nuke program.

The US president also told aides that he is fine if negotiations with Tehran blow past the 18 August headline.