Donald Trump will meet the Qatar prime minister at the White House on Monday, in the next step of a mediation effort aimed at a new ceasefire and a return to nuclear talks with Iran. The Qatar prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, will sit down with Trump at noon in Washington, 17:00 GMT, in a closed door meeting in the Oval Office, according to the White House schedule. Vice President JD Vance is also set to meet the Qatari leader before he sees Trump.
Qatar has acted as the key go between for Washington and Tehran during the crisis, passing on proposals and trying to narrow the gaps over Iran’s nuclear programme and the terms for ending the conflict. The Qatar prime minister told Al Jazeera on Saturday that the talks had made substantial progress, and he said Washington was still keen to reach a settlement. “We cannot wait to reach a perfect agreement; we hope to reach a good agreement,” he said.
Iran has passed a nuclear proposal to Washington through Qatar, according to a senior Iranian official who spoke to Reuters, and the proposal is conditional on the United States meeting Tehran’s demands, including relief from sanctions. Qatar has denied reports that the talks had failed, and its foreign ministry spokesman, Majed al-Ansari, said on Saturday that Doha was still in contact with both governments.
Qatar prime minister and the draft deal on the table
The Qatar prime minister has put forward a draft deal that would work in steps over two days to build trust toward a wider agreement. On the first day, the United States would lift its naval blockade of Iran and release some of Iran’s frozen funds, put at about 8 billion dollars held in overseas institutions, while Iran would invite inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to visit nuclear sites damaged by American and Israeli attacks.
On the second day, the Strait of Hormuz would reopen and nuclear talks would resume, with a focus on Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium. The deal would not require Iran to remove the enriched material from its territory, according to reports on the draft, but it would let inspectors back into sites that have been closed to them since the bombing. The plan builds on an agreement reached in Cairo in September 2025 between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and IAEA chief Rafael Grossi.
Mediators have spent two weeks working with members of the Trump administration to stop the conflict from growing, the Qatar prime minister said at Oxford University on Friday. Qatar has worked with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey on the draft, and the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, spoke with Trump by phone on Friday about the efforts to ease tensions.
Qatar prime minister and the gaps that remain
The gaps are still wide. Iran has set seven demands that it says must be met first, including lifting the blockade of its ports, waiving sanctions on sales of its crude oil, cancelling new sanctions and returning frozen overseas assets. Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said during a visit to Russia that Tehran refuses to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or engage in talks until Washington meets those demands.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that the talks had made little progress and that he did not expect a breakthrough soon. He spoke before leaving Florida for a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Paris, and he said Trump wanted a diplomatic outcome. Trump said on Sunday that he was highly unlikely to order further strikes against Iran if the talks moved forward and led to a strong agreement.
What the White House meeting could decide
The meeting on Monday will test whether the Qatar prime minister can close the gap between the two sides. Vance has been in near daily contact with mediators over the past two weeks, and he has pushed for a new ceasefire and a return to nuclear talks. The Qatar prime minister will meet him first, then sit down with Trump, and the two meetings will show whether the draft deal has a chance.
The Qatar prime minister arrives in Washington with the talks still alive and the draft still on the table. The meeting at noon on Monday is the next step in a mediation that has run for weeks.