Photo: Zairon, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY). File photo of Doha's skyline, the city where the talks are being held.
Iranian negotiators were in Doha on Sunday for a third consecutive day of talks with Qatari mediators aimed at pushing for a deal to end the US-Israeli war on Iran, an official briefed on the discussions told Reuters.
The talks come amid concerns that the conflict could escalate again after the November 3 US midterm elections. President Donald Trump has said the United States will not launch new attacks on Iran before the vote and that talks with Tehran have been productive, though he has not ruled out further military action thereafter. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that Trump has not decided whether to launch new strikes against Iran, but would prefer to resolve the conflict diplomatically.
Warnings on both sides
Diplomacy is advancing alongside open preparation for war. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, issued a statement on Saturday ordering the armed forces to be prepared to respond to any attacks, and the Iranian military later announced it was taking steps to improve its readiness.
"Any level or type of threat must be met with an immediate, impactful, and geographically unrestricted response," Khamenei said in the statement, posted on his official Telegram account. He said senior commanders had reported high readiness along the Gulf coast, in and around the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman, and on Iran's northwestern and southeastern borders. Khamenei has not appeared in public since replacing his father, who was slain at the war's outset, Reuters reported.
Iran has repeatedly said it would respond to any new attacks by striking US and Israeli targets in neighbouring countries, as the eight-month-old war continues to disrupt global oil supplies and spill over across the Middle East.
How the talks got to Doha
Qatari mediators were in Tehran on Friday for more than 12 hours of discussions with Iranian officials before moving the talks to Doha on Saturday, the official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters. The talks were being coordinated in regular contacts with Washington, the official added.
Gaps remain, however. In the latest Qatari-mediated discussions, the Qataris brought a proposal to Tehran a week ago for a seven-day plan, under which the US and Iran would take daily steps to build trust ahead of broader peace talks, a source briefed on the negotiations said. A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Friday that this proposal was not deemed satisfactory by Tehran. Iran has been proposing its own seven-day plan since September, so far rejected by Trump.
What to watch
No deal has been announced, and the details of either seven-day proposal have not been made public. The officials describing the talks spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the negotiations publicly, so the shape of any agreement — if one emerges — remains unclear.
The talks are also running alongside reports, covered separately on this blog, of possible US strikes on Iran after the midterm elections. That makes the next two days the hinge of the story: either the third day in Doha produces a path back from the brink before Americans vote on Tuesday, or the diplomacy stalls and the warnings on both sides become the week's main event.
Sources: Reuters, November 1, 2026; Reuters, October 31, 2026. Details of the negotiations rest on officials briefed on the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity; no agreement has been confirmed by Washington or Tehran.