Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi holds a press conference after meeting with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein in Baghdad, Iraq, on Sunday local time. [UPI]
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi holds a press conference after meeting with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein in Baghdad, Iraq, on Sunday local time. [UPI]

Donald Trump said negotiations with Iran would take place in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday local time, but Iran flatly denied it.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told the state-run IRNA news agency Monday local time that Iran had no plans for follow-up talks with the United States on a ceasefire agreement in the coming days. "The current top priority of the Islamic Republic of Iran is to ensure the implementation of the memorandum of understanding's provisions," Baghaei said, adding that Iran was "seriously pushing forward our demands in this regard" and that no follow-up negotiations were yet scheduled.

Baghaei said Iran was tracking the implementation of several MOU provisions, including oil sales and free access to Iran's frozen assets, and noted that an Iranian expert delegation would be dispatched to Doha, Qatar, that week to that end. Doha is the city Trump had named as the venue for follow-up talks. Iran framed the Doha visit as a review of its frozen assets held in Qatar.

"We have not yet entered the negotiation phase for a final agreement," Baghaei said. "According to Article 13 of the MOU, the start of negotiations for a final agreement is contingent on the initiation and continued implementation of Articles 1, 4, 5, 10 and 11." Iran's position is that any exchange of attacks between the United States and Iran would constitute a violation of Article 1, making conditions unsuitable for discussing follow-up negotiations.

Baghaei also pushed back against media reports that a senior US delegation had visited Doha at the same time as the Iranian expert delegation, saying Iran would "not hold any level of negotiation talks with the US side in the coming days."

"The visit of the US delegation to Qatar has nothing to do with the visit of the Iranian delegation," Baghaei said, adding that the Iranian delegation's visit was solely to review the status of MOU implementation, including Article 11.

Earlier, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi also denied the US account, saying no working-level talks with Washington were scheduled that week.


kate01@heraldcorp.com