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Qatari mediators returned to Tehran on Friday as part of renewed efforts to secure an agreement between the U.S. and Iran, Reuters reported, citing an official briefed on the talks.
The mediation efforts have been coordinated with the U.S., the official said.
Qatar had presented Iran with a draft peace plan on Sunday, but a senior Iranian official rejected the ideas as unacceptable and said Tehran would not change its position on the nuclear issue.
Washington wants Iran’s nuclear program included from the beginning of negotiations, while Tehran says the U.S. must first end its blockade of Iranian ports and lift sanctions on Iranian oil exports.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Wednesday that Tehran remained in close contact with intermediaries and was reviewing ideas that could help implement Iran’s own seven-day proposal to end the war in the Middle East.
Araqchi said Iran continued to give diplomacy a chance and that its plan could be implemented in less than a week.
Iran rejects Western concerns that its nuclear program is military in nature.
On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump said Vice President JD Vance’s outreach to Iran concerned medical supplies, following U.S. media reports that had linked the contact to efforts to revive peace talks.
In a separate Reuters report, an official briefed on the negotiations said Qatar had presented Tehran with a new draft agreement on Sunday aimed at ending the eight-month-old war involving Iran, the U.S. and Israel.
The official, who is not Iranian, said the proposal was being considered by Tehran and that a response had been expected by the end of the week.
Qatar, together with Pakistan, has led mediation efforts to end the conflict, which has disrupted global shipping and oil supplies and recently spread to Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
The Qatari proposal laid out a seven-day timeline addressing concerns raised by both Tehran and Washington, with daily confidence-building measures required from each side, according to the official.
The timeline could begin early next week, with several countries acting as guarantors of the agreement, the official added.
A senior Iranian official involved in the negotiations later said Qatar had presented only “unacceptable ideas and not an offer,” adding that Tehran’s policy of showing no flexibility on the nuclear issue remained unchanged.
The two sides remain divided over the sequence of any potential agreement. Washington wants nuclear issues addressed from the outset, while Tehran insists its conditions, including an end to the U.S. port blockade and the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil exports, must come first.
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