US says talks with Iran to resume

The United States said technical talks with Iran will resume in Doha on Tuesday, while Iranian officials said nothing has been scheduled and some $6 billion of Iranian assets would be released through Qatar.

US President Donald Trump said on Monday on social media that Iran had requested a meeting with US counterparts, though Iranian officials said no such meeting was scheduled.

"Iran has requested a meeting. It will take place tomorrow in Doha," Trump wrote in all capital letters in a social media post on Monday.

Moments later, Trump's press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told Fox News that top envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would attend the talks. "On the sidelines of those high-level talks, will be the technical talks," she said.

The US news site Axios had reported that the planned meeting is said to focus on the Strait of Hormuz.

But Kazem Gharibabadi, a senior negotiator for Iran, denied any talks had been scheduled, in comments published by IRNA.

"Although consultations with Qatar, including on following up on the implementation of the other side's commitments, are continuing as usual, reports by some media about technical talks by the working groups being held in Doha are not confirmed," he said.

"No technical meetings of the working groups are planned for this week," Gharibabadi said, quoted by state TV, referring to the Iranian week ending on Friday.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian announced on Monday that $6 billion of Iran's frozen assets will be released and returned through Qatar, Iran's Mehr News reported.

He also confirmed that oil and petrochemical sanctions have been lifted under the peace deal, which he called a "great victory" for the Iranian people.

The Iranian president said the $6 billion is part of a total of $12 billion in Iranian funds held in Qatar, with a follow-up underway to return the remaining portion.

The release of the funds and the sanctions relief were part of the framework agreed at the talks in Switzerland and the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding.

Renewed fighting over the weekend stemmed from conflicting interpretations of the MoU to end the war, as well as the provisions regarding the status of Hormuz, according to Axios.

Gharibabadi separately met with Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Zahir Al Hinai, ambassador-at-large at Oman's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Muscat.

Hormuz a flashpoint

During the trip to Muscat, the first meeting of the Hormuz Joint Committee was held with the Omani official, according to Gharibabadi in a post on X on Monday.

"While reviewing current issues related to the strait, we exchanged views on the future management of the strait within the framework of paragraph five of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding and the sovereign rights of the coastal states," Gharibabadi added.

The Omani-Iranian meeting is part of the fifth point of the MoU's framework, which states that Iran will make its best efforts to secure the safe passage of commercial vessels from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman and vice versa for 60 days without charge.

The MoU also states that Iran and Oman will define the future administration and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz, in discussion with other littoral states, in line with applicable international law and the sovereign rights of the strait's coastal states.

Earlier, Trump once again threatened Iran, a day after the maritime skirmishes.

Trump said a US aircraft had struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations, as well as coastal radar sites, "for violating the ceasefire agreement", he wrote on social media on Sunday.

Elsewhere, at a joint news conference in Baghdad with Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Sunday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein called for a summit bringing together Gulf countries, Iraq, and Iran to discuss regional security.

Hussein stressed that the security of the region should be the responsibility of its peoples, according to a report by the Iran News Agency.

Agencies contributed to this story.