---
title: "Qatar ran 12-plus hours of talks in Tehran to restart US-Iran negotiations before the midterms"
description: "The June 17 ceasefire broke down weeks after signing; Brent settled at $117.64 a barrel, its highest since late April"
author: "Luis Goa"
published: 2026-10-31T12:11:12Z
modified: 2026-10-31T13:20:25Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/qatar-ran-12-plus-hours-of-talks-in-tehran-to-restart-us-ira-3c279a
language: en
tags: ["iran", "war", "oil", "trump", "mideast", "world"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Qatar ran 12-plus hours of talks in Tehran to restart US-Iran negotiations before the midterms

*The June 17 ceasefire broke down weeks after signing; Brent settled at $117.64 a barrel, its highest since late April*

By Luis Goa · October 31, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/qatar-ran-12-plus-hours-of-talks-in-tehran-to-restart-us-ira-3c279a

## In brief

- Qatari mediators held more than 12 hours of talks in Tehran on Friday, with talks set to continue in Doha on Saturday, Axios first reported
- The war began with US and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28; a June 17 ceasefire deal broke down within weeks and the last confirmed US strikes were Sept. 1
- Trump said the war ends ‘whenever I want it to’; Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s office promised a ‘geographically unrestricted response’ to any new attack
- Iran reported US attacks on two fishing boats near Qeshm Island, unconfirmed; Iran said four tankers struck mines and UKMTO reported a tanker hit by a projectile
- Brent December futures settled up 2.4 percent at $117.64 a barrel on Friday, the highest since late April

Qatari mediators spent more than 12 hours in talks with Iranian officials in Tehran on Friday, trying to restart direct US-Iran negotiations and head off a resumption of American-led strikes after the November 3 midterm elections, an official source familiar with the discussions [told CNBC](https://cnbc.com/2026/10/31/qatar-iran-us-talks-mediation.html). Axios first reported the talks and said they would continue in Doha on Saturday. [Al Jazeera reported](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/30/qatari-officials-in-iran-in-bid-to-revive-ceasefire-deal-with-us), citing Iran’s state news agency IRNA, that the delegation arrived Friday morning, was coordinating with US officials, and was headed by the senior adviser to Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani.

## The war’s arithmetic so far

The conflict began on February 28 with US and Israeli strikes on Iranian targets. A preliminary agreement signed June 17 to halt the fighting broke down within weeks. The last confirmed US strikes on Iran occurred on September 1. Diplomatic traffic has run through Qatar before without producing a deal: Washington rejected a [seven-day Iranian plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz](https://rews.cc/a/iran-offers-us-a-seven-day-plan-to-reopen-the-strait-of-horm-8efb64) in September, and [mediation ahead of the midterms](https://rews.cc/a/before-the-midterms-tehran-holds-the-strait-and-its-memory-o-87e2a2) has so far produced proximity talks rather than an agreement. Trump has left open the possibility that attacks resume after the midterms.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump repeated his claim that the Iran war will end “whenever I want it to.” He said ending it “would be very quick, but we have to have an end properly,” with a “total statement” that Iran would never have a nuclear weapon. Tehran’s public position moved in the other direction: a statement posted Saturday on Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s Telegram account said that “any level or type of threat must be met with an immediate, impactful, and geographically unrestricted response.” Iran has said it is preparing a military response to any new US strikes.

## Hormuz is where the pressure shows up

The Strait of Hormuz is the mechanism converting each failed round of diplomacy into an oil-price number. About 20 million barrels of oil a day moved through the strait in 2024, roughly 20 percent of global petroleum liquids consumption, according to [US Energy Information Administration estimates](https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=65504). The past week produced five separate reported attacks in or near it:

Iran’s broadcasting agency, quoting a Hormozgan province official, said Saturday that US forces attacked two fishing boats off Masan near Qeshm Island. That report has not been independently confirmed, and US Central Command did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment. The UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre reported Friday that a crude oil tanker exiting the strait was hit by an unknown projectile. Iran said Friday that four tankers struck mines: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said three caught fire on what it called an “unauthorized southern route” near the Omani coast, and Iran’s army said a fourth burned east of the strait. Separately, Yemen’s Houthis claimed missile strikes on Saudi Arabia. The “unauthorized route” label is the pattern rews described in October: [Hormuz now runs on two rulebooks](https://rews.cc/a/hormuz-now-has-two-rulebooks-and-tankers-that-break-either-o-c58641), and ships that break either one get hit.

Oil prices priced in the escalation on Friday. Brent crude futures for December, which expired that day, settled up $2.76, or 2.4 percent, at $117.64 a barrel after touching $118 — the highest settlement since the end of April. The more active January contract gained $2.63 to settle at $113.43. Both moves are measured settlements on a single day’s reporting of mine strikes and a projectile hit, not projections of what a full resumption of US strikes would do to a waterway carrying a fifth of the world’s oil.

Note how thin the confirmed layer of this picture is. The 12-hour figure for Friday’s talks comes from one anonymous official source. The fishing-boat attack is an Iranian state-media claim CENTCOM has not addressed. Trump has said the war ends on his schedule; Khamenei’s office says any attack gets a geographically unrestricted response. The Doha round on Saturday is the next data point, and Tuesday’s midterms are the deadline both sides are quoting.

## Sources

- [Qatari mediators held talks in Tehran aimed at restarting US-Iran negotiations](https://cnbc.com/2026/10/31/qatar-iran-us-talks-mediation.html) — cnbc.com
- [Qatari officials in Iran in bid to revive ceasefire deal with US](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/30/qatari-officials-in-iran-in-bid-to-revive-ceasefire-deal-with-us) — aljazeera.com