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Qatar, Iran Discuss Bilateral Ties, Regional Developments

Meeting between the Iranian President and Qatari Foreign Minister in Tehran on Thursday, January 27, 2022. (Iranian presidency)
Meeting between the Iranian President and Qatari Foreign Minister in Tehran on Thursday, January 27, 2022. (Iranian presidency)
    London, Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat
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Qatar, Iran Discuss Bilateral Ties, Regional Developments

Meeting between the Iranian President and Qatari Foreign Minister in Tehran on Thursday, January 27, 2022. (Iranian presidency)
Meeting between the Iranian President and Qatari Foreign Minister in Tehran on Thursday, January 27, 2022. (Iranian presidency)

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani held talks on Thursday with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian in Tehran, ahead of talks with President Ebrahim Raisi.

Discussions tackled bilateral ties and political developments in the region.

Amirabdollahian met with Qatar’s ruling emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and Sheikh Mohammed during his visit to Doha on Jan. 11.

On Tuesday, Al Thani held talks with Iran’s FM over the phone, Iranian Ambassador to Qatar Hamid Reza Dehghani announced on Twitter.

According to a Foreign Ministry statement, the ministers discussed bilateral and regional issues, including Afghanistan and Yemen, without referring to the nuclear talks.

Al Thani said in a tweet that he he met with his Iranian counterpart and held fruitful discussions on the latest regional developments.

“I emphasize the constants of Qatar’s foreign policy, based on good neighborliness and constructive dialogue, to foster political dialogue aimed at achieving sustainable regional stability,” he added.

Raisi underscored the importance of “deepening ties between regional countries” in a meeting with Sheikh Mohammed, who invited the president to attend Gas Exporting Countries Forum summit in February in Doha.

Al Thani’s visit comes after Amirabdollahian on Monday said Tehran is ready to consider direct talks with Washington if it feels it can get a “good nuclear deal.”

However, Iran’s state news agency IRNA said the visit was not intended to help set up direct talks with Washington.

“Although Doha and Tehran are experiencing good and close relations, this visit ... has fueled some misconceptions. Some are fabricating it to facilitate direct talks with the United States,” IRNA said, Reuters reported.

The US and Iran have held eight rounds of indirect talks in Vienna since April aimed at reinstating the 2015 pact that lifted sanctions against Tehran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program.

After then-US President Donald Trump quit the nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed harsh sanctions, Iran gradually started violating the pact’s nuclear curbs.

Significant gaps remain about the speed and scope of returning to the deal, including Iran’s demand for a US guarantee of no further punitive steps, and how and when to restore curbs on Iran’s atomic work.

Sheikh Tamim will hold talks with US President Joe Biden on Jan. 31 including on efforts to salvage the pact.

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World

Egypt Tries to Revive US-Iran Negotiations

Vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, August 17, 2026. (Reuters)
Vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, August 17, 2026. (Reuters)
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Egypt Tries to Revive US-Iran Negotiations

Vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, August 17, 2026. (Reuters)
Vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, August 17, 2026. (Reuters)

The top diplomats for Egypt and Iran discussed efforts to bring Tehran and Washington back to the negotiating table to settle the war, Egypt's foreign ministry said on Saturday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty also discussed the Iranian-Omani talks on the management of the Strait of Hormuz, the ministry said.

Araghchi briefed Egypt's foreign minister about “Iran’s view of ongoing developments, the course of negotiations and their challenges,” the ministry said, without elaborating.

There was no immediate statement from Araghchi.

World

Putin Says Ukraine Opened ‘Pandora’s Box’ with Strikes on Economic Targets

Russian President Vladimir Putin gives an interview to journalist Pavel Zarubin in Moscow, Russia, August 22, 2026. (Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin gives an interview to journalist Pavel Zarubin in Moscow, Russia, August 22, 2026. (Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via Reuters)
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Putin Says Ukraine Opened ‘Pandora’s Box’ with Strikes on Economic Targets

Russian President Vladimir Putin gives an interview to journalist Pavel Zarubin in Moscow, Russia, August 22, 2026. (Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin gives an interview to journalist Pavel Zarubin in Moscow, Russia, August 22, 2026. (Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via Reuters)

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in comments published on Saturday that Kyiv had opened "Pandora's box" with its strikes on Russian economic targets, saying that Russia would hit back at Ukraine's "most sensitive economic sectors".

Ukraine has this summer escalated a campaign of drone strikes targeting Russian economic infrastructure, including oil refineries and online retailers' warehouses, seeking to ‌destroy infrastructure it ‌says is central to Russia's ‌war ⁠effort.

Russia has responded ⁠with strikes against Ukrainian economic infrastructure, including Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea.

"The Kyiv regime set out to damage our economy. What did it do? It opened this Pandora’s box itself. Well then, expect a response targeting your ⁠most sensitive economic sectors," Putin said ‌in comments to ‌a Russian state television journalist.

He said that the strikes, ‌which have jeopardized Ukraine's agricultural exports, would ‌not cause global food shortages, because Russia would be able to replace Ukrainian exports, even as Kyiv has targeted Russian grain export infrastructure.

"We do face ‌challenges regarding the shipment of our goods, but we will resolve these issues. ⁠Consequently, ⁠there will be no shortage on the global market," Putin said.

Russia and Ukraine had previously adhered to a Turkish-brokered deal to protect grain exports on the Black Sea. But Russia exited the deal in 2023.

The Russian leader also restated his position that Moscow is open to peace talks, but only on the basis of "realities on the ground", rather than what he called "exotic" proposals that he said had been made by Ukraine via intermediaries.

World

Iran Condemns US Plans to Announce New Sanctions

Iranian people walk past an anti-US mural in Tehran, Iran, 17 August 2026. (EPA)
Iranian people walk past an anti-US mural in Tehran, Iran, 17 August 2026. (EPA)
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Iran Condemns US Plans to Announce New Sanctions

Iranian people walk past an anti-US mural in Tehran, Iran, 17 August 2026. (EPA)
Iranian people walk past an anti-US mural in Tehran, Iran, 17 August 2026. (EPA)

Iran on Saturday denounced US plans to announce new sanctions that could put further strain on the country’s economy and have an impact on its most important trading partners including China.

After nearly six months of war since the US and Israel launched airstrikes against Iran on February 28, the sides are not firing at each other but also showing no sign of pursuing peace talks.

Oil shipments are at a virtual standstill in the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran threatening to strike any unauthorized oil tankers that try to transit the vital waterway, and Iran's economy is already under immense pressure from sanctions.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is due to hold a press conference at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) on Monday after threatening "the toughest sanctions in history" on Iran.

Bessent has also urged cooperation with Washington by China, which buys more than 80% of Iran's shipped oil, according to 2025 data from ‌analytics firm Kpler. ‌Beijing has urged diplomacy.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said on Saturday the imminent US announcement of ‌new ⁠economic sanctions was an "assertion ⁠of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent member state of the United Nations."

"Such secondary sanctions find no foundation in international law," he said in a post on X.

The chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, Major General Ali Abdollahi, promised on Friday that Iran would respond to enemy threats militarily with "crushing, punishing and devastating responses.”

US President Donald Trump, who has warned of economic consequences against any country that provides "any type of lifeline to Iran," said on Friday that Washington was observing "what happens" in the conflict.

"They would love to make a deal, but they're not ready to make the right deal, in my opinion," Trump said of Iran.

HORMUZ TRAFFIC HALTED

While the US has effectively blockaded Iranian vessels in their ports, the Strait of ⁠Hormuz remained bottled up with thousands of seafarers stranded on hundreds of vessels.

Only four commodity ships ‌sailed along the strait on Thursday, none of them large crude carriers or liquefied ‌natural gas tankers, ship-tracking data showed.

However, Iran has granted permission for a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait following repeated requests from ‌Baghdad, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.

IRNA said obtaining special permission for Iraqi tankers was one of Baghdad’s main requests ‌during a visit to Iraq by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the US military helped move a seven-day average of 8 million barrels a day of oil through the strait. That's down from more than 20 million per day before the war or about one of every five barrels consumed worldwide.

US attacks have severely diminished Iran's economy and devastated its navy and air force, but Tehran maintains enough missile and drone capability ‌to impede oil tanker traffic and attack regional rivals.

Abdollahi, the armed forces chief of staff, sought to underline Iran's missile capabilities during a visit to an underground plant manufacturing ballistic missiles that was reported ⁠by state television on Saturday.

"This ⁠plant has been able, much better than in the past, to produce equipment superior both in capacities and quality and in quantity," he said.

Trump, meanwhile, has yet to achieve objectives he set at the start of the war such as dismantling Iran's nuclear program - the state of which remains uncertain given that UN inspectors have been shut out since 2025 - and creating conditions for Iranians to overthrow their clerical rulers.

Thousands have been killed, mainly in Iran, where 168 Iranian school children were killed on the first day of the war. The US has reported more than 750 military personnel wounded and 18 killed.

While Iran remains defiant, President Masoud Pezeshkian has also called for a diplomatic solution.

"It would be better to end the war today, when we are powerful and have dignity, and the whole world acknowledges our victory and emphasizes that America, contrary to all regulations, attacked our schools, hospitals, and infrastructure and is hated in the world," the ISNA news agency quoted him as saying on Friday.