US and Iranian technical delegations converged on Doha on Tuesday, yet the two sides issued irreconcilable accounts of whether any direct encounter would take place, injecting fresh uncertainty into a peace process already strained by weekend exchanges of fire. Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman, Majed al-Ansari, told reporters that US envoy Steve Witkoff and presidential adviser Jared Kushner were in the capital to meet Qatari mediators, but that “no high-level meeting between Washington and Tehran” was scheduled. He added that technical talks on nuclear, economic and security tracks were continuing and could later be elevated. The clarification came hours after President Donald Trump posted on social media that Iran had requested a meeting and that it would occur in Doha, while White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described the planned talks as “high-level” and said Witkoff and Kushner would lead them.

Viewed from Tehran, the visit carries a narrower purpose. Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei stated that an Iranian expert delegation would travel to Qatar solely to pursue implementation of the memorandum of understanding, specifically the clause on releasing frozen assets. He insisted that “no negotiation meetings at any level with the American side” were planned in the coming days and that final-agreement talks could not begin until Washington had fulfilled its obligations under the MoU’s clauses on cessation of hostilities, safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, oil sales and asset unfreezing. President Masoud Pezeshkian reinforced the conditional stance, writing that Iran would honour its commitments only if the US did the same. Deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi separately rejected a French-Omani demining proposal for the strait, asserting that the MoU assigned that task exclusively to Iran.

The diplomatic dissonance reflects a deeper struggle over control of the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway through which a fifth of global oil trade passed before the war. Iran has insisted that vessels use a single corridor along its coastline and has threatened to obstruct ships that deviate, while the US and Gulf states maintain that the pre-war regime of free transit must be restored. Oman’s foreign minister, Sayyid Badr al-Busaidi, said Muscat opposed transit fees but was open to discussing voluntary maritime service mechanisms modelled on the Malacca and Singapore straits. In Washington, administration officials briefed lawmakers that the goal remained a final deal preventing Iran from retaining high-enriched uranium, though Democratic senators voiced concern that Tehran would gain billions in oil revenue while retaining leverage over Hormuz.

Shipping data showed tentative recovery: about 40 vessels transited the strait on Monday, up from single digits during the blockade but still well below the pre-war average of over 100 per day. Oil prices hovered near pre-conflict levels, with Brent trading around $72.50 a barrel, as markets priced in a gradual normalisation of Gulf exports. The 60-day implementation window for the 14-point MoU, signed on 17 June, has already lost nearly a quarter of its timeline without the start of nuclear negotiations. The immediate next step, according to Qatari and Iranian officials, is a round of separate technical meetings with Qatari and Pakistani mediators on Wednesday, focused on the strait’s administration and the mechanics of releasing $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds held in Qatar.