Trump meeting with Qatar prime minister ends without Iran peace deal

President Donald Trump and Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani met behind closed doors on Monday afternoon, but no deal to end the Iran war emerged.The Trump administration is facing renewed pressure to end the war after Democrats routed the Republican Party during the midterm elections to recapture the House and Senate, largely due to the public’s frustration with the war.The White House did not release a readout of the meeting. Tehran says it will not negotiate with American leaders unless the United States meets seven conditions outlined in a previous agreement. The U.S. is weighing a new peace proposal Tehran offered last week that includes a lifting of the U.S. naval blockade on Iran. Trump discussed the deal with the Qatari prime minister, who also serves as the nation’s foreign minister, in the 45-minute meeting Monday.In a Sunday interview with CBS News’s 60 Minutes, Trump claimed he did not see “any reason” to escalate hostilities with Iran in the aftermath of the midterm elections. Vice President JD Vance blamed the war for costing the GOP control of the House and Senate, to which Trump agreed.“I don’t disagree with it,” Trump told CBS News. “The only thing I wish he would’ve said there, if he felt it, and you’d have to ask him about that, but if you had to do it again, would you do it? You know, he’s part of a decision-making process. And my answer is an emphatic yes because you can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon. I think, historically, this will be a very good decision.”Anger over rising gas and diesel prices due to the war helped Democrats flip races in red-leaning states such as Kansas, Texas, South Carolina, and North Carolina.Congressional Democrats have already signaled they could use the Dec. 11 government funding deadline to force Trump to end the war during the lame-duck session, or force the issue early next year when they officially take control.After two years in the political wilderness, Democrats are eager to prove to the public that they can rein in the unpopular aspects of the Trump administration, such as ending the war. Oversight of the war could also include an impeachment vote of War Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is the subject of articles filed by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) on Monday.The day after the midterm elections, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, speaking at a press conference, declared that Democrats “are going to end the war. We have some Republicans already who have joined us in ending the war, and the Founding Fathers had the power of the purse as one of the ways of deterring a president who does war without the consent of the American people.”Schumer, along with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), released a joint statement outlining the priorities of the incoming Congress, which included ending the war.“The American people have forcefully rejected MAGA extremism and are demanding dramatic change in their lives,” they said. “House and Senate Democrats have been given a clear mandate to aggressively address the affordability crisis, stop the reckless war of choice in Iran, meaningfully expand access to affordable healthcare and hold the crooks accountable who have unleashed unprecedented corruption on the country.”Others are urging congressional leaders to act now rather than wait for the new Congress in January.In a letter to Republican and Democratic senators this week, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) wrote, “Government funding is set to run out on December 11. I believe we would abdicate our responsibility if we voted to provide billions of additional dollars for President Trump’s war of choice in Iran. We must refuse to invoke cloture on any package that includes another cent for his war.”Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who’s considering both a run for majority leader and for president in 2028, said he believed “that Democrats should not advance spending to continue to fund this war.”“I think we all remember the Vietnam War, … but the Vietnam War ended only when Congress defunded, and this is an illegal war, and we need to … make sure that taxpayer monies are not used to continue an illegal war,” he said.Negar Mortazavi, a senior fellow with the Center for International Policy, suggested that U.S. tensions with Iran will recede in part because “Tehran sees the Republican defeat as vindication of its strategy to make Americans feel the economic costs of war. Yet it remains pragmatic and flexible in seeking a diplomatic exit.”TRUMP SAYS RETURN TO FULL-SCALE WAR WITH IRAN ‘HIGHLY UNLIKELY’ AS PEACE TALKS PICK UPIran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi appeared to confirm Mortazavi’s assessment late Sunday night.“POTUS clearly recognizes that the vast majority of Americans are disgusted with Israel. Strikingly, he seems confused about why that’s the case,” Araghchi wrote on X in response to Trump’s comments to CBS News. “Americans are evidently sick and tired of Israel bamboozling US administrations into Forever Wars. They had enough. So has our region.”