TEHRAN/DOHA, MAY 22: A Qatari negotiating team arrived in Tehran on Friday in coordination with the United States to try to help secure a deal to end the war with Iran and resolve outstanding issues, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday.
Doha, which has worked as a mediator in the Gaza war and other areas of international tension, had till now distanced itself from playing a mediation role in the Iran war after it came under attack from Iranian missiles and drones during the latest conflict.
“A Qatari negotiation team is in Tehran on Friday,” the source said, adding that the team had traveled in coordination with the United States and was there to help “reach a final deal that would end the war and address outstanding issues with Iran.”
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The Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While Pakistan has served as the official mediator since fighting began, Qatar’s re-engagement reflects its longstanding role as a US ally in the region and a trusted back-channel between Washington and Tehran.
A shaky ceasefire is in place in the war that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, but there has been no major breakthrough, with a US blockade of Iranian ports and Tehran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz complicating negotiations.
A senior Iranian source told Reuters on Thursday that no deal had been reached, but gaps have been narrowed, with Iran’s uranium enrichment and its control over the strait among the remaining sticking points.
A bride and groom hold a rose as they pose for pictures during a mass wedding ceremony for participants in the “Janfada” (“Sacrifice for Iran”) pro-government campaign in Tehran, Iran, May 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio noted some progress on Friday but added that more work is required.
Iran’s foreign minister met his Pakistani counterpart on Friday to discuss proposals to end the war, Iranian media reported.
“There’s been some progress. I wouldn’t exaggerate it. I wouldn’t diminish it,” Rubio told reporters after a meeting of NATO ministers in Sweden. “There’s more work to be done. We’re not there yet. I hope we get there.”
Asked about the Qatari team in Iran, Rubio told reporters that Pakistan was the primary interlocutor in the Iran talks and they had done an “admirable job.”
He added: “Obviously, other countries have interests, because especially Gulf countries that are, you know, in the middle of all this — they have their own situation going. And we talk to all of them. I would just say that the primary country we’ve been working with on all of this is Pakistan, and that remains the case.”
Doha’s re-engagement comes despite Iran having pounded Qatar with hundreds of missiles and drones, targeting civilian infrastructure and its vital liquefied natural gas (LNG) production facility at Ras Laffan. That attack wiped out roughly 17 percent of Qatar’s LNG export capacity. The country had already halted LNG production on March 2 following Iranian strikes.
Before the war, about 20% of global LNG trade transited the Strait of Hormuz, primarily from Qatar — Iran’s effective closure of the strait has cut off virtually all of its LNG export capacity.
Motorbikes and cars pass through an intersection in downtown Tehran, Iran, May 17, 2026. (AP/Vahid Salemi)
Qatar is a designated major non-NATO ally of the United States and hosts Al Udeid Air Base, the largest US military installation in the Middle East.
Rubio reiterated comments made on Thursday that Iran’s plans for a tolling system for the strait were “unacceptable.”
“We’re dealing with a very difficult group of people, and if it doesn’t change, then the president’s been clear he has other options,” Rubio said.
He also said the US had not asked the NATO military alliance for help on the Strait of Hormuz but that there needed to be a Plan B if Iran refuses to reopen the waterway.
Two days after presenting the Iranians with the latest US message in the negotiations, Pakistani Interior Minister Syed Mohsin Naqvi held another round of talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Tehran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
Uncertainty fuels oil price hikes
The war has wreaked havoc on the global economy, with the surge in oil prices stoking fears of rampant inflation.
The US dollar was near its highest level in six weeks on Friday amid the uncertainty over peace talks, while oil prices climbed as investors doubted the prospects of a breakthrough.
“We’re coming to the end of week 12, we’re six weeks in the ceasefire, and I’m just not really that convinced we’re any closer to a resolution between the US and Iran,” Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG, said of the Middle East war.
US President Donald Trump said the US would eventually recover Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium — which Washington believes is destined for a nuclear weapon. Tehran says it is intended purely for peaceful purposes, but uranium enriched to such levels has no peaceful applications.
Two senior Iranian sources told Reuters before Trump’s comments that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei had issued a directive that the uranium should not be sent abroad.
Trump faces domestic pressure ahead of November midterm elections, with Americans angry over the surge in fuel prices and his approval rating near its lowest level since he returned to the White House last year.
Tehran submitted its latest offer to the US earlier this week.
Iran’s descriptions suggest it largely repeats terms Trump previously rejected, including demands for control of the Strait of Hormuz, compensation for war damage, lifting of sanctions, release of frozen assets and the withdrawal of US troops.
Traffic through the strait has fallen to a trickle compared with 125 to 140 daily passages before the war.
Iran has said it aims to reopen the strait to friendly countries that abide by its terms, which could potentially include fees.
In the past 24 hours, 35 tankers, cargo and other commercial vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz after obtaining permission from the Revolutionary Guards Navy, its public relations division said.
The US and Israel say their war aims are to curb Iran’s support for regional militias, dismantle its nuclear program, destroy its missile capabilities and make it easier for Iranians to topple their rulers.
But Iran has so far retained its stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium, and its ability to threaten neighbors with missiles, drones and proxy militias.
