Qatar says negotiations ongoing to end regional conflict

Qatar says negotiations, message exchanges ongoing to end regional conflict

Doha, Oct 6

Ibrahim bin Sultan Al-Hashmi, director of the media and communications department at Qatar's Foreign Ministry, said at a weekly media briefing that Doha could not disclose details of the ongoing diplomatic exchanges but confirmed that talks were continuing, Xinhua News Agency reported.

"The scale of this conflict and the magnitude of the price that the whole world is paying require us to put our best efforts to end this immediately through a negotiable solution on the negotiation table," Al-Hashmi said.

He added that negotiations had taken into consideration the concerns of the various parties, without specifying details.

The remarks came as the conflict between the United States and Iran has dragged on for more than seven months, with no breakthrough in sight.

US President Donald Trump has warned that Iran would "suffer greatly" if it was behind threats that prompted Washington to move military assets from Britain, even as he said he remained open to direct talks with Tehran.

Trump, speaking to reporters before departing aboard Marine One, addressed Iran several times as he fielded questions about the movement of US bombers, tensions in the Middle East, energy supplies and an attack involving Flydubai.

Asked whether a specific threat had prompted the United States to pull bombers back from Britain, Trump confirmed there had been threats.

"Yeah, I think we can say that. I mean, they didn't fly out by accident, yeah," Trump said.

"No, but there were some threats and, rather than tempting the enemy, we'll capture the enemy and beat the enemy. But why should we leave them there? So, we moved them around a little bit, not very far."

Trump did not initially identify those behind the threat.

Later, he was asked whether there was a risk that Iran had brought combat drones into Britain and whether that was why the US assets had been moved.

— IANS