Iran-US negotiations ongoing as regional tensions mount: Qatari official

By Lina Altawell

ISTANBUL (AA) - Negotiations between Iran and the US remain ongoing, with both sides continuing to engage as regional tensions deepen, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said on Tuesday.

“The negotiation is ongoing. We are seeing engagement from the parties,” Ansari, who also serves as an adviser to the Qatari prime minister, said at the Global Security Forum in Doha.

He said discussions were taking place with regional partners and expressed hope that the process would eventually produce an agreement, while warning that conditions on the ground were becoming increasingly difficult.

“Escalation left unchecked will mean that we are spiraling towards a regional war that will expand beyond the borders of our region,” he warned.

Ansari said the current process followed an earlier attempt to use a ceasefire as a pathway toward negotiations, but that effort ultimately failed and fighting resumed.

“Any ceasefire is basically a door that opens towards a destination rather than the destination itself,” he said, adding that the previous ceasefire “broke down again.”

On Yemen, Ansari said the conflict could be linked to tensions involving Iran but also had its own dynamics, describing the latest developments as part of an “escalatory ladder” that began in 2023.

“The only way to make sure that that doesn't continue is to start defusing all of these conflicts at the same time,” he said.

The spokesman voiced concern over political statements coming from Israel, saying regional instability should not be used for domestic political purposes.

“We are concerned about a lot of the statements coming out, political statements that are coming out, especially from Israel,” he said, adding that exploiting regional instability for political infighting was “not something that any responsible statesman should do.”

- No peace partner in Israel

Turning to Gaza and the broader Palestinian question, Ansari said prospects for a political settlement were being undermined by the absence of a viable peace process.

“Sadly, right now we do not have a partner for peace in Israel,” he said, questioning whether Israeli political parties and candidates were offering any path toward peace with Palestinians.

“The only thing that we hear coming out of Israel right now is about war and death and destruction,” he said, warning that “war begets war, conflict begets conflict.”

Since October 2023, Israel has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians and injured over 175,000 others during its war on Gaza, while around 90% of the enclave's civilian infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.

Ansari said successful mediation did not require the parties to trust one another, but rather to have confidence in the process itself.

“It is trust in the process, not trust in each other, that allows for mediation to succeed,” he said.

The remarks come amid escalating hostilities between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthis, with the Saudi-led coalition carrying out airstrikes against Houthi positions and the group launching missile and drone attacks targeting the kingdom.

The regional escalation has coincided with continued tensions between the US and Iran following their military confrontation, with diplomatic efforts aimed at reaching an agreement remaining deadlocked.