President Donald Trump met Monday at the White House with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, continuing Doha’s role as a go-between in efforts to wind down the war with Iran. The meeting ran just under an hour, according to White House officials, and unlike most of Trump’s sit-downs with foreign leaders, there was no press event afterward.
The talks came as Tehran pushed a trimmed version of the seven-point proposal Iran unveiled after Democrats won the midterm elections, a plan Secretary of State Marco Rubio has already called “outrageous and ridiculous.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday promoted what Tehran is calling its “two-day proposal.” The name reflects Iran’s position that Washington could meet all of its demands within 48 hours, after which Iranian officials say they would be willing to sit down for further talks. Those demands include sanctions relief and war reparations, granted without preconditions before negotiations even begin.
“American voters have made their choice. Time for the White House to make its own,” Araghchi wrote in a social media post Sunday.
“Our 2-day proposal stands: meet the requirements, including end to war on all fronts, and you will see results. Or choose war, and see our alert and battle-hardened Warriors rain down hell,” he added.
Rubio dismissed any notion of momentum as he left for a G7 foreign ministers meeting in France on Sunday.
“I have no progress to report. There are several countries that continue to engage with Iran and put forward various ideas, but I would not say that we are on the verge of a breakthrough,” Rubio told reporters.
“At the moment, the talks have not been particularly productive because the Iranian demands are simply unacceptable, and in some cases they are outrageous, ridiculous, and detached from reality,” he said.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei pushed back Monday, framing Tehran’s terms as self-evidently reasonable.
“Is it unreasonable that Iran demands that U.S. illegal sanctions and its naval blockade must be lifted before negotiations start and that the war should end on all fronts?” Baghaei said at a press conference.
An Iranian official separately denied Turkish media reports that Vice President JD Vance and Mohsen Rezaei, chief of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, had been invited to meet next week in Doha.
“Iran’s policy and plans regarding talks have not changed. Until the U.S. side takes concrete steps to meet our seven conditions, plans won’t be made to negotiate with the U.S. side,” the official said.
On the ground, Iranian state media reported four more explosions on Sunday on Qeshm Island near the Strait of Hormuz, an island American forces bombed last Monday after Iran fired on U.S. aircraft.
Trump said Sunday a return to large-scale hostilities was “highly unlikely,” but he made clear he would order further strikes if needed.
“We have 38 bridges in our sight that we can knock down in literally one hour. They’ll all be down,” he said.
“I don’t like ripping down bridges. And the hardest thing to build is a bridge. It takes years, and I’m a good builder,” he added.
