‘Positive progress’ made on US-Iran talks

Mediators, Qatar and Pakistan, concluded separate meetings with US and Iranian negotiators in Doha, Pakistan’s Foreign Office (FO) said yesterday, adding that “positive progress” was made on issues related to the MoU and the Lake Lucerne Summit.

“Parties have agreed to continue discussions over the coming period, with the next meeting to be set at the earliest possible time following the funeral processions of the former Iranian Supreme Leader,” FO said.

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A “communication channel” will be established with Washington to report and discuss breaches of the MoU, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said.

Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf yesterday called for massive turnout at Ali Khamenei’s funeral to avenge the Supreme Leader’s death in US-Israeli strikes at the start of the war.

“I invite all the Iranian people... to write a glorious page in the history of Islamic Iran through your presence” at the funeral ceremonies starting tomorrow, said Ghalibaf, who is also Iran’s parliament speaker. “The nation’s call for vengeance must ring in the ears of the whole world,” he added in a statement.

Traffic in the Strait of Hormuz held “steady” on Tuesday, July 1, “with 34 verified crossings recorded and traffic evenly split by direction,” Kpler, a data and analytics firm, said yesterday.

The report followed data from another maritime tracker, WindWard AI, which recorded 42 transits in the waterway on Monday, reports Al Jazeera online.

Iran’s acting Defence Minister Majid Ebn al-Reza, meanwhile, has reiterated that the country’s military capabilities are a “red line” and will not be discussed during negotiations with the United States.

“They are not negotiable — now or in the future,” he said. Al-Reza also said that Iran’s “missile and drone programmes will continue to advance”.

In a message ahead of the state funeral of Khamenei, Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian said: “The martyrdom of our leader is not the end of the road, but the beginning of a new chapter.”

An Iranian military commander has warned the United States and Israel against any attack on Iran as it prepares for the funeral, reports Reuters.

Any US interference in the Strait of Hormuz would trigger a “decisive and rapid” response, he said, adding that the continued presence of US air assets across the waterway endangered regional security.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will attend the funeral, the South Asian nation’s foreign ministry said. “The Prime Minister, Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, will go to Iran and Turkey from 3-5 July... he will go to Iran first for (the) supreme leader’s funeral,” ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi told reporters.

India said that its deputy foreign minister and a state governor would represent the country at the state funeral. Governor of Bihar, Syed Ata Hasnain, and deputy Foreign Minister Pabitra Margherita will visit Iran on July 03, the Indian foreign ministry said in a statement.