U.S. President Donald Trump referred yesterday, Wednesday, to “very good” contacts in Qatar, where representatives from the U.S. and Iran held indirect and technical talks on the so-called “memorandum of understanding,” following an exchange of strikes that threatened the ceasefire.

According to the official Iranian news agency IRNA, the negotiations concluded with an agreement allowing the Islamic Republic to purchase goods using a portion of its funds frozen in Qatar. The parties also agreed to establish and activate a communication channel within the day to report and document any violations of the agreement in principle.

Following the signing of this document by the presidents of the two countries on June 17, after mediation primarily by Pakistan and Qatar, Washington and Tehran began negotiations that are theoretically set to last 60 days—renewable—with the aim of reaching an agreement that will permanently end the war in the Middle East.

A diplomatic source at the French Press Agency reported yesterday that indirect talks were to be held in Doha, and that they were currently underway.

The source clarified that Donald Trump’s envoys, Steve Whitecoff and Jared Kushner, were not participating in these talks; the day before yesterday, Tuesday, they had a meeting in the Qatari capital with the prime minister and head of the emirate’s foreign ministry, Mohammed bin Abdurrahman al-Thani.

Tehran denies that there were any direct negotiations with the U.S. side in Doha. This did not prevent U.S. President Trump from expressing his satisfaction with the “very good contacts” and assuring that “everything is going well.”

“Iran’s denuclearization is moving forward,” the Republican told reporters in the U.S. “They’ve been hit very hard,” but “we understand each other very well,” he added.

“Differences of opinion”

Following the conclusion of the talks, Iran stated that it would use part of its funds frozen in Qatar to purchase necessary goods.

“There was an agreement that, based on our country’s needs, the requested products would be procured and made available to Iran,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Garibabadi, without going into detail about the mechanisms involved.

Although the signing of the agreement in principle between Washington and Tehran has significantly reduced the intensity of the conflict, major tensions remain, particularly regarding Iran’s nuclear program and the strategically important Strait of Hormuz, where shipping traffic slowed to a crawl over the weekend following attacks on commercial vessels.

Iran has been saying for weeks that it intends to impose fees for services related to the passage of commercial ships, in one form or another, something the U.S. considers unacceptable.

Labor unions and employers’ organizations in the shipping sector continue to maintain that—at least as of July 9—the strait remains a war zone, according to their statement.

However, the price of a barrel of North Sea Brent crude oil—the benchmark variety on international markets—remained stable yesterday, just below $70.

Accusing Tehran of attacking two ships last week, the U.S. military bombed Iran on Sunday. The Islamic Republic retaliated by launching missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles against its neighbors in the Gulf, particularly Kuwait and Bahrain.

Tensions appear to have de-escalated since then.

“When a large-scale war comes to an end (…), it is inevitable that there will be difficulties in implementation, incidents, and differences of opinion,” commented the lead Iranian negotiator, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bayer Galibaf, during an interview broadcast Tuesday night on state television.

Tehran intends, he added, to focus the ongoing negotiations on ending hostilities in Lebanon and on the Strait of Hormuz.

“Overall positive” message

It is still “very early in the negotiation process, and battles are being fought behind the scenes and in public,” but the “overall positive message is that they are continuing the dialogue following last week’s clashes,” said researcher Anna Jacobs, a fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute, in an interview with Agence France-Presse.

In Lebanon, which Tehran demanded be included in the negotiations, Israel has continued its bombings and military operations in recent days, despite the signing on Friday in Washington of a framework agreement between the governments of the two states aimed at restoring “lasting peace.”

The framework agreement stipulates that Israel will continue to occupy part of southern Lebanon, as it has since the outbreak of the new war against Hezbollah on March 2, as long as the Shiite movement aligned with Iran does not lay down its arms. Hezbollah rejects the agreement and any possibility of its disarmament.

This is a demand that has been made for a long time, but the Lebanese government has been unable to meet it, despite pressure from the U.S.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz reiterated yesterday that his country’s army will remain “indefinitely” in what he described as “security zones” in Lebanon, Syria, and the Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah is accused of dragging Lebanon into the war in the Middle East in early March, when it fired rockets at Israel to avenge the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the early hours of the U.S.-Israeli attack against the Islamic Republic on February 28. In retaliation, Israel vowed to “eradicate” the enemy and launched large-scale bombings and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, killing more than 4,200 people, according to figures from the Ministry of Health in Beirut.

Source: Protothema.gr