US President Donald Trump is set to meet Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani at the White House on Monday, as efforts to end the ongoing conflict with Iran continue to face major diplomatic hurdles.
According to the White House schedule, the meeting will take place behind closed doors. US Vice President JD Vance is also expected to hold a separate meeting with the Qatari leader, a US official said.
Qatar has played a key role as a mediator between Washington and Tehran, relaying proposals and attempting to narrow differences over Iran’s nuclear programme and the conditions needed to end the conflict.
However, diplomatic progress appears limited. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that negotiations with Iran had achieved little and that he did not anticipate an immediate breakthrough.
Speaking before leaving Florida for a G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Paris, Rubio said Trump preferred a diplomatic resolution but described Iran’s demands as “unacceptable” and, in some cases, “outrageous and ridiculous, and really not realistic”.
Trump, meanwhile, said on Sunday that he was highly unlikely to order fresh strikes against Iran if negotiations made progress and resulted in a strong agreement.
However, he warned that the United States had identified additional infrastructure targets, including bridges, should military action resume.
The planned White House meeting comes as Qatar continues its diplomatic efforts to facilitate communication between the two sides, amid uncertainty over whether negotiations can produce a breakthrough.
