Qatari delegation holds ‘good meetings’ with Iran’s FM on Sunday, Baghaei says

Speaking at a weekly press briefing on Monday, Esmaeil Baghaei, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said the visit was part of ongoing regional contacts aimed at reducing tensions.Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said a Qatari delegation held “good meetings” with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi during their visit to Tehran on Sunday.Speaking at a weekly press briefing on Monday, Baghaei said the visit was part of ongoing regional contacts aimed at reducing tensions.“The [Qatari] delegation was in Tehran yesterday and held good meetings with [Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas] Araghchi,” Baghaei said, adding that “the Qatari delegation’s visit took place within the same framework of ongoing regional contacts aimed at reducing tensions.” He noted that delegations from Oman and Pakistan had also traveled to Tehran in recent weeks and met Iranian officials.The Sunday visit follows a higher-level trip by Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who travelled to Tehran on Thursday, 27 August, in the first high-level visit between the two countries since the U.S.-Iran war began in February.During that visit, Sheikh Mohammed met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. The talks focused on regional developments, the consequences of the escalation and efforts to create conditions for renewed diplomacy.During the meeting, Pezeshkian described Iran and Qatar as “friendly and brotherly countries” and said outstanding differences could be addressed through dialogue.Also at Monday’s briefing, Baghaei was asked more broadly about ongoing negotiations, and said talks should be viewed as a tool for advancing national interests rather than something inherently positive or negative.“Negotiations are neither inherently bad nor inherently good,” Baghaei said. “Negotiation is a tool for advancing the country’s interests and safeguarding national interests and security.”Asked about threats by Israel’s former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against Qatar, Baghaei said Israel was seeking domination over the entire region.Such statements, he said, should serve as a “warning to regional countries to recognize the real enemy of peace and security in the region,” Baghaei said.Qatar has continually backed diplomatic initiatives aimed at restoring freedom of navigation and reducing the economic and security fallout from the conflict. One of the latest points of friction between Qatar and Iran came on Friday, over Tehran’s claims about its strikes on Qatar. Baghaei cited a Qatari security document submitted to the International Telecommunication Union, saying it showed that Iranian strikes targeted U.S. military facilities and “no civilian areas”.Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari rejected the claims, saying that if Iran wished to rely on official documents, it should refer to Qatar’s formal submissions to the United Nations rather than “selectively quoting” from a security risk assessment prepared for operational purposes. The U.S. renewed strikes on Iran on Sunday, 30 August, striking Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island, after claims that Iranian forces were preparing to launch rockets carrying sea mines into a recently de-mined shipping lane through the Strait of Hormuz.Iran responded by targeting U.S. military sites in the region.