Trump and Mohammed bin Abdulrahman meeting: Settlement efforts race against escalation

Washington, Tehran – AFP, Reuters – Amid escalating tensions between Tehran and Washington and stalled negotiations, US President Donald Trump discussed developments in the war with Iran with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani at the White House on Monday, as Iraq entered the mediation process.

Axios reported that Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman is seeking to persuade Trump to allow diplomatic efforts more time to create an opportunity for reaching a settlement with Tehran.

In this context, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Doha is presenting Washington a proposal approved by Tehran, which calls for lifting the US maritime and economic blockade in exchange for halting attacks on ships and oil tankers.

Citing two informed diplomatic sources, the newspaper added that the proposal includes the release of $8 billion in frozen Iranian funds. It further stated that Tehran has apparently dropped its demand to control the strait and impose transit fees on ships.

This meeting marks Trump’s first with a foreign official since his Republican Party’s loss in the midterm elections last Tuesday, which cost it its majority in Congress.

Axios also noted that US Vice President JD Vance, who met with the Qatari Prime Minister later, has been directly involved in indirect talks with Tehran over the past two weeks, holding near-daily communications with Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman as part of mediation efforts.

Earlier, the US President stated that the likelihood of issuing orders for new military strikes against Tehran would be highly unlikely if negotiations made progress and led to a strong agreement. However, he simultaneously warned that the United States had identified additional targets in Iranian infrastructure if military operations were resumed.

Foreign Secretary Marco Rubio confirmed that negotiations have achieved only limited progress, expressing that he sees no signs of an imminent breakthrough.

In response, Iran has insisted on its conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz within two days, primarily the lifting of US sanctions, ending the maritime blockade, and halting combat operations on all fronts.

Meanwhile, Baghdad has entered the mediation line. The Iraqi Ambassador to Iran, Yasser Abdulzahra Al-Hajjaj, confirmed reports in Iranian media regarding a “secret visit” by Prime Minister Ali Al-Adibi to Iran on Friday, which is his second visit following a public one on July 23.

Al-Hajjaj told the official Iraqi news agency, WAFA, that Al-Adibi’s visit to Iran “is of a special and unannounced nature, aiming to explore ways to reduce tensions and defuse the war in the region.”

He added that “Iraq is not on the sidelines of what is happening in the region, but is actively moving according to its supreme national interests, under the leadership of Prime Minister Ali Al-Adibi, placing its diplomatic efforts at the service of de-escalation, preventing escalation, and enhancing regional stability.”

An informed source had previously confirmed to the Iranian news agency Fars that Al-Adibi made a visit lasting several hours to Tehran, during which he met with the head of the Iranian negotiating delegation, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Chairman of the Parliament. The source stated that “the discussions focused on Iraq’s efforts to end the war between Iran and America, and did not address other topics.”

The source added that Qalibaf “praised Iraq’s efforts and explained Iran’s two-day plan, emphasizing the necessity for America to respect Iran’s rights within the framework of this plan to push negotiations forward.”

The source did not rule out that the visit was linked to a phone call between Trump and Al-Adibi last Thursday, followed by the Prime Minister’s meeting with US envoy Tom Barrack on the same day.

On the ground, a senior Iranian source told Reuters that US attacks on Qeshm Island on Sunday evening targeted Iranian radar systems used for air defense and maritime navigation, as well as bases for missile launch platforms and naval mine-laying systems.

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot accused the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of being behind the “unprecedented” cyberattacks that affected refrigerators in French retail stores last October.

He stated, “This attack is unprecedented in terms of scale and level of aggression... We will impose sanctions at the European level against all those responsible.”

US military airlift and logistics movements toward the Middle East have continued over the past two weeks, coinciding with the departure of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and its strike group from Singapore, and their ongoing journey toward the region, which they are not expected to reach before mid-November.

The Al Jazeera Open Source Intelligence unit tracked more than 100 flights of US military transport and refueling aircraft between October 26 and yesterday morning, by analyzing air navigation data and flight paths departing from European bases and airports toward Israel, Jordan, and other destinations in the Middle East.