Iran, US set for Qatar talks after fragile ceasefire

President Donald Trump said the sides would meet again in Qatar on Tuesday.

Iran and the United States were set to resume talks in Doha as Qatar tried to keep a fragile ceasefire from unraveling after days of strikes in the Gulf. Technical talks would continue on a memorandum of understanding tied to the wider push for a lasting peace deal.

The renewed diplomacy followed a preliminary agreement that would halt recent hostilities, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and begin a 60-day negotiation period over Iran’s nuclear program and U.S. sanctions relief. American and Iranian officials had been in the Gulf state, and Qatar has acted as a key mediator between the two sides, even as competing claims over attacks in the region continued.

The ceasefire had already moved prices and stocks. Equity markets rose after the preliminary agreement, while oil prices fell as traders priced in the possibility of a temporary reduction in risk to Gulf energy flows. Trump also kept up the pressure, warning on June 28 that the U.S. military could “complete the job” if Iran did not comply with the ceasefire. The deal’s text had not been fully finalized or publicly released, Israel was not a party to the agreement, and Iran still retained leverage through its control of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most sensitive shipping lanes.