Iran’s top security official and adviser to the supreme leader, Ali Larijani, told reporters in Doha that indirect negotiations between Tehran and Washington are ongoing and that American participation signals a shift toward a more rational approach. Visiting Qatar, Larijani accused Israel of seeking to derail the process by creating pretexts for confrontation and argued that Israeli actions threaten stability across the wider Middle East, not only Iran.
Larijani said regional governments are working to ensure the talks succeed and described Iran’s attitude as positive, while adding that Tehran has not yet received concrete proposals from Washington. He reiterated Iran’s long-standing position on its nuclear programme and issued a clear deterrent warning: should the United States attack Iranian territory, Iran would respond by striking US military bases in the region.
Larijani met Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and was also received by the Qatari prime minister and foreign minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman. Qatari statements stressed support for de‑escalation and for resolving disputes through peaceful negotiation, reflecting Doha’s increasingly prominent role as a mediator between Tehran and Western interlocutors in recent years.
The remarks come after indirect US‑Iran talks in Muscat last week, which have been framed by both sides as exploratory and limited in scope. Tehran’s insistence that no concrete US proposals have yet arrived keeps the window for diplomacy open while allowing Iranian leaders to claim the moral high ground and to maintain domestic leverage by threatening force if provoked.
For regional capitals and Western governments, Larijani’s visit and posture matter because they both reflect and help shape the negotiating environment. If Washington is genuinely edging toward a more pragmatic stance, that could reduce the risk of miscalculation; but Israel’s opposition and Iran’s public threats to target US bases complicate the arithmetic, raising the stakes for mediators like Qatar and Oman.
The coming weeks will test whether talk of rationality on the US side translates into concrete offers that Tehran can accept without eroding regime security or domestic credibility. Failure to produce substantive proposals could empower hardliners in Tehran and heighten the likelihood of covert or overt attempts by regional actors to sabotage a diplomatic resolution, while a breakthrough would recalibrate security and economic calculations across the Middle East.