Qatar hands Iran draft deal after failed talks

Qatari mediators provided a draft agreement to Iran on Sunday, and Tehran is expected to deliver its formal response by the end of this week. The timing follows a high-level meeting in Tehran on Monday where officials from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkiye attempted to de-escalate tensions with Iranian leaders.

The urgency of these diplomatic efforts is driven by the immediate threat of new US strikes on Tehran. President Donald Trump repeated warnings on Friday that Washington might mount another military operation against Iran. These comments coincided with rising fuel prices that are weighing on the US midterm elections scheduled for November 3.

Iranian authorities have signaled a hard line in response. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps stated it would respond more forcefully to any new US action. On Wednesday, Iranian officials declared that the Qatari ideas were unacceptable and that Tehran would show no flexibility on the nuclear issue. This marks the first high-level contact between Iran and the Mecca pact nations since the US-Israel war began on February 28.

Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman Al Saud attended the Monday session in Tehran. His presence came days after Houthi fighters, who are aligned with Iran, struck Saudi airports, ports, and oil facilities. The visit was accompanied by Qatari diplomats, reflecting the Gulf states' coordinated push to stop a return to all-out war.

Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi spoke at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom on Monday. He called for a regional security framework that would include a non-aggression pact between Gulf states and Iran. Under this proposed structure, the United States would no longer serve as the primary security provider for the region.

Analysts suggest that the gap between the parties remains wide. Khaled Batarfi, a Saudi political analyst, told Al Jazeera that the visit showed Riyadh was willing to give Iran a last warning, but that Iran has refused. He noted that a lack of trust makes the situation worse. Hamidreza Azizi of the International Crisis Group identified the main obstacle as a disagreement over the sequence of commitments. The US wants Iranian concessions on nuclear matters first, while Iran insists its own conditions for ending the war come first.

The earlier conflict already restricted passage through the Strait of Hormuz and disrupted global oil and gas supplies. Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi, an associate fellow at Chatham House in London, said a comprehensive regional security framework looks unlikely in the coming months. She observed that smaller, flexible groups of countries are currently leading efforts toward bilateral or multilateral solutions.