Qatar says US-Iran negotiation is 'ongoing'; Iran's armed forces chief says Tehran will not wait for US midterms to respond to any attack
Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman said both sides were engaging and warned that unchecked escalation could spread beyond the region. Iran's top military officer said any new US attack would be answered without waiting for the November elections.
Negotiations between Iran and the United States are continuing, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said on Tuesday 20 October at the Global Security Forum in Doha, CBS News reported. “The negotiation is ongoing. We are seeing engagement from the parties,” he said, without saying whether the contacts were direct or through mediators.
Al-Ansari warned: “Escalation left unchecked will mean that we are spiraling towards a regional war that will expand beyond the borders of our region.”
On the same day, Iran’s chief of staff of the armed forces, Maj. Gen. Abdollahi, said Iran “has not waited, nor will it wait, for the results of the U.S. congressional elections” to respond to any new US attack, CBS News reported. He said US forces were the “main cause of insecurity in the region”.
Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, was due in Tehran on Tuesday. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the talks would be “mainly focused on bilateral relations”, CBS News and AFP reported.
US President Donald Trump said at a Kansas rally on Monday that the US “could leave right now” and that Iran is “not going to have a nuclear weapon”, ABC News reported.
Background: The US and Israel began strikes on Iran in late February 2026. The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding in June aimed at ending the war, but talks have since stalled, according to ABC News.
See also: Hegseth discussed Iran with Netanyahu during unannounced visit to Israel and Iran says it will answer any attack but cannot abandon diplomacy.
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