Iran-US Doha Talks End Without Deal, but Follow-Up Remains Possible
Indirect talks between the United States and Iran ended in Doha on Monday without a deal, Iranian officials said, but a further meeting remained possible after Washington circulated a draft proposal and Tehran said it was waiting for a response. The two sides have now met twice in recent weeks after a year in which the United States bombed Iranian nuclear sites and Iran responded by attacking a US air base in Qatar, and in which President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened further military action if Iran did not agree to a nuclear deal. The Doha round was due to take place over several days, but ended after roughly two hours of indirect talks, according to Iranian media.
The shape of the negotiations was unusual. Mr Trump had given Iran a 10–15 day deadline to strike a deal before he would decide on military action, and Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner arrived in Doha on Sunday carrying what Reuters described as a draft proposal, with the expectation that Tehran would respond by Wednesday. That timetable was compressed on Monday, when the Iranian delegation left Doha early in the afternoon, having told the mediators it needed to consult Tehran. The Iranian foreign ministry said Mr Araghchi had briefed the mediators, including the Qatari prime minister, on Iran's views and that the talks would continue "through mediators", while an Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran had given its response to the US proposal through mediators, describing it as a basis for discussion that preserved Iranian rights on enrichment. Mr Araghchi told Al Jazeera that the United States had received Iran's position on Sunday and that Tehran was now awaiting a response, adding that the discussions had been "positive" and that the Iranian delegation would return to Doha whenever the mediators invited it.
What remains unclear is the substance of the draft proposal, which neither side has published. A US official told Reuters that Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner had delivered a draft with 15 conditions and that the Iranian side had "taken the draft to Tehran", while a senior Iranian official described the draft as a "fairly good" basis for talks. Reporting of the deal's terms varied: Axios reported that the US had proposed a framework covering the nuclear programme, Iran's ballistic missiles and its regional proxies, with verification by the International Atomic Energy Agency; another report said the draft would require Iran to move all enriched uranium out of the country in exchange for sanctions relief. On the key issue of enrichment, Iranian officials have repeatedly said the right to enrich uranium is a red line, while the US has demanded zero enrichment — a gap that the draft proposal was meant to bridge, possibly through an arrangement under which Iran would retain a civilian enrichment programme under IAEA supervision but with limits on enrichment levels and stockpiles. No account of the draft has been confirmed by either government, and the reports should be read as unconfirmed.
The talks took place against a backdrop of continued military preparations and a deepening regional crisis. The United States has maintained a large naval presence in the Gulf, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its strike group, and the US military said on Monday that it had shot down an Iranian drone that approached the carrier in the Arabian Sea. Iran has repeatedly warned that it would respond to any attack by targeting US bases in the region, and has closed its airspace to commercial flights for several hours each night since Friday, citing military exercises. The talks also took place as the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important oil chokepoint, remained a focal point: Iran's foreign minister said Tehran would reopen the strait within 48 hours if the US accepted its demands, while the US said it would keep the strait open by force if necessary. The economic stakes were visible in oil markets, where Brent crude fell by about 2 per cent on Monday after the talks ended without a deal, as traders judged that the risk of a supply disruption had eased for now. At the same time, the talks were taking place as Iran's internal crisis deepened: protests that began in late December over the collapse of the rial have grown into the largest anti-government demonstrations in years, with at least 3,000 people killed, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, and the Iranian government has cut internet access and imposed a nationwide curfew in an attempt to suppress them. Mr Trump has said the US would "come to the rescue" of protesters if Iran killed them, while Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has blamed the US and Israel for the unrest.
What happens next depends on whether the draft proposal survives its journey to Tehran and back. Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner remained in Doha on Monday night, according to Reuters, and were expected to brief the Qatari mediators on the US position before leaving. The Iranian delegation said it would return if invited, and the Qatari foreign ministry said the talks had been "constructive" and that the parties had agreed to continue discussions. But the gap between the two sides' public positions — zero enrichment versus a right to enrich, sanctions relief versus a phased lifting of sanctions, and a deal that covers only the nuclear programme versus one that also addresses missiles and regional proxies — remains wide, and the military clock is ticking. Mr Trump's deadline, which he set at 10–15 days from 28 January, expires in the coming days, and the US has said it will decide on military action after the deadline. If the talks fail, the consequences could be severe: a US strike on Iran would likely trigger Iranian retaliation against US bases and Gulf oil infrastructure, and could draw in Israel, which has said it would support a US attack. If they succeed, the deal would be the first between the two countries since the 2015 nuclear agreement, and would mark a significant de-escalation in a region that has been on the brink of war for months. For now, the talks have produced neither a deal nor a breakdown — only a draft, a response, and a promise to keep talking, with the outcome uncertain and the stakes higher than at any point in the current crisis.
Read the full story at The Curtain: https://thecurtain.online/story/us-iran-doha-talks-no-deal/
Sources:
Dawn via OrbSignal: https://www.orbsignal.com/article/an-opening-2371616
NationScope: https://www.nationscope.news/news/us-iran-talks-conclude-without-agreement-e96e96bf
Dubai Standard: https://www.dubaistandard.com/us-israel-iran-war-latest-developments-uae-residents-should-know-on-november-2-2026/
Particle News: https://particle.news/story/iran-offers-to-reopen-strait-of-hormuz-in-48-hours-if-us-accepts-demands
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