Trump announces Qatar meeting Tehran says nothing planned

US President Trump says a meeting with Iran will be held in Qatar’s capital on Tuesday after Tehran “requested talks” following days of reciprocal attacks threatened their interim deal.

However, a senior Iranian official says there are no planned meetings with US officials from “technical teams” in Doha this week.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says $6bn of the $12bn of its frozen funds held by Qatar will be released and returned to the country.

Israeli forces kill three more Palestinians in Gaza – including a child – as its genocidal war on the Strip continues despite a US-brokered “ceasefire”.

While other tracts of the Iran-US deal remain stalled, Tehran’s access to its $6bn in frozen funds is in play, analyst Abbas Aslani says.

“Part of the deal between Iran and the United States, which has been facilitated by Qatar, is in relation to Iran having access to that money,” Aslani said, adding a further $6bn is also on the table. “The process seems to be beginning.”

In 2023, under the Biden administration, the two sides reached an agreement to release $6bn in Iranian assets that had been frozen in South Korea.

The funds were transferred to Qatar as an intermediary with the expectation Tehran would gain access.

However, a combination of political pressure on the Biden administration and broader geopolitical complications ultimately prevented the deal, he said.

While broader developments continue to affect the atmosphere of the talks, Aslani said the financial track remains active.

“[Doha] is seeking to somehow salvage the situation by using these issues – like giving Iran access to its money – in order to somehow encourage Iran to continue with the talks with the US,” he told Al Jazeera.

Strait of Hormuz traffic slowed over the weekend after a commercial vessel was struck while transiting the waterway and an exchange of strikes between the US and Iran strained their preliminary deal to end the conflict.

In total, 29 commodity vessels crossed on Saturday and 12 transited on Sunday, according to data from the maritime tracking firm Kpler.

The figures marked a sharp decline from last week when a memorandum of understanding signed by Tehran and Washington boosted traffic through the strait to its highest level since the start of the war, reaching 70 crossings on Wednesday, according to Kpler.

Despite Iran’s warning against using unapproved shipping lanes, vessels continued to take several routes through the waterway over the weekend.

After one vessel was attacked on Saturday morning, ships continued for several hours to use a southern corridor through Omani waters before traffic appeared to slow, according to the Kpler-owned website MarineTraffic.

The website tracks only ships with active transponders meaning additional tankers may have crossed with signals switched off.