Qatari delegation in Tehran for talks as US strike fears mount

Eltaf Najafizada, Bloomberg News on Oct 30, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

A delegation from Qatar — a main mediator in efforts to avert fresh fighting between the U.S. and Iran — arrived in Tehran on Friday for talks with senior officials, Iranian state media reported.

Headed by a senior adviser to Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the delegation arrived in Iran as concern mounts that U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing to attack the Islamic Republic after midterm elections scheduled to be held on Nov. 3.

“One way or the other” the war is “going to end very soon,” Trump said on Friday. A day earlier, the president was briefed by the head of U.S. Central Command on potential military options targeting the Islamic Republic, Fox reported.

Like other U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf that host U.S. military bases, Qatar is keen to see an end to the conflict because it’s borne some of the worst of Iran’s retaliation to Washington’s strikes.

Qatari officials were also in Tehran last week when Iran’s top national security official Mohsen Rezaee met with defense ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan — three countries that recently inked a regional security pact.

On Tuesday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei reiterated a set of conditions for ending the war “set out by the country’s officials” which include an end to a U.S. naval blockade and the removal of sanctions in order to start formal peace talks with the U.S.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Friday claimed an “oil supertanker” hit a sea mine in the Strait of Hormuz.

The last incident reported by the U.K. navy in the area was on Thursday. The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations said a tanker near Oman’s Khasab in the strait was approached by a small boat that attached two explosive devices to its hull, with subsequent blasts causing an engine-room fire.

—With assistance from Alexander Pearson and Omar Tamo.