EASTORA REPORT | Qatar is carrying messages between Washington and Tehran. Iran’s security chief insists that is not a negotiation—and says a reported meeting with U.S. Vice President JD Vance will not happen.
In an interview with Al-Mayadeen on Tuesday, November 10, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, rejected reports of continuing U.S.-Iran talks and a meeting in Doha. He accused Washington of circulating the stories to ease economic pressure and push down oil prices. Reports that he would meet Vance were “completely false and baseless,” he said.
Rezaei said Tehran had demanded a “clear and explicit” American response to its seven conditions for ending the conflict but had received none. Until those conditions are met, he insisted, Iran will neither resume negotiations nor reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Its demands include lifting U.S. sanctions, releasing frozen Iranian assets and paying war reparations.
The speculation over Doha followed a report in Türkiye newspaper quoting Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin as saying Rezaei and Vance would meet in Qatar next week. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, separately denied that any such meeting was planned.
There is, however, a diplomatic channel. On November 5, a senior Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran had sent a nuclear proposal to Washington through Qatar, but that discussions could begin only after the United States acted on Iran’s conditions. Passing proposals through mediators has not resolved the dispute over which side must move first.
On Monday, President Donald Trump met Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, at the White House. Trump spoke of progress toward ending the war and said renewed large-scale U.S. strikes looked unlikely. He kept the American naval blockade and stopped short of accepting Tehran’s truce proposal.
The dispute runs deeper than Doha. Washington wants nuclear questions addressed at the outset; Tehran wants sanctions relief, access to its assets and an end to the blockade before negotiations begin. For Rezaei, the order is not negotiable: no American action, no open Strait of