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Qatar and Pakistan are continuing efforts to revive negotiations between the US and Iran, with officials speaking to the parties daily to explore possible ways forward, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.
“Our officials are on the phone on a daily basis trying to workshop ideas, workshop ways of getting back to the negotiations,” Majed Al-Ansari told reporters in Doha.
Al-Ansari did not provide details of the proposals being discussed but said Qatar remained focused on reaching a diplomatic solution to the ongoing war between the two sides.
“Our priority was always reaching a diplomatic solution through talks,” he said. “We are urging the parties to engage fully in the talks and the mediation that is led by Qatar and Pakistan and the other regional players.”
He further described negotiations as “the only way out of this crisis” and urged both sides to engage in good faith.
Qatar and Pakistan have acted as the two main mediators between the US and Iran since the outbreak of the war in late February.
Al-Ansari’s comments came after Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir visited Tehran for talks with senior Iranian officials as part of efforts to reduce regional tensions and revive negotiations.
The visit coincided with an expansion of US sanctions against Iran, which Washington has dubbed “Operation Economic Outcast”.
Tehran has vowed to resist the measures, while Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said the talks in the Iranian capital had made “significant progress”.
Asked whether the new sanctions could support efforts to resolve the war, Al-Ansari said they were unilateral rather than UN or multilateral measures and that questions about their purpose should be directed to the countries imposing them.
Qatar calls for immediate reopening of Hormuz
Al-Ansari also rejected the possibility of Qatar pursuing a separate agreement with Iran to secure passage for its energy exports through Hormuz.
“This is a regional problem that needs a regional solution. It cannot be addressed bilaterally with Iran,” he said.
“Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz in a way that goes beyond international maritime law and goes beyond good-neighbourly relations. This needs to end immediately.”
He said Doha wanted freedom of navigation restored to the conditions that existed before the war began.
The strait is a vital route for global energy supplies and is particularly important to Qatar, one of the world’s largest exporters of liquefied natural gas. Disruption to shipping through the waterway has delayed energy deliveries and raised concerns about global supplies.
Al-Ansari said other countries were entitled to negotiate their own arrangements with Iran but maintained that Qatar favoured regional talks over separate safe-passage agreements.
“For us in Qatar, we believe in regional dialogue over this,” he said. “The imperative is to go back to freedom of navigation and to the opening of the Strait of Hormuz as it was before the war.”