Strait of Hormuz could reopen as part of Qatari plan for Iran nuclear inspections

Trump still considering new assault on Iran nuclear sites – though threats less credible after Vance remarks

Qatar, the lead mediator in the US-Iran conflict, is seeking to persuade Tehran to allow UN nuclear weapons inspectors to visit Iran’s bombed nuclear sites, including those housing the country’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

Iran would not be required to make any commitment that the stockpile would be removed from the country, with other options on the table, including reducing the uranium content by down-blending it.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, spoke to Donald Trump about the proposal, the emir’s office said on Friday without revealing the call’s contents.

The state news agency said the emir “emphasised the importance of continuing dialogue and embracing diplomacy as a means of resolving disputes, preventing further escalation in the region”.

Trump is still considering whether to mount a further assault on Iranian nuclear sites, though the credibility of his threats is weaker inside Iran after his vice-president, JD Vance, said the war itself, and not just its cost to American consumers, was critical to the collapse of the Republican vote in the US midterms.

Under the Qatar proposal, the US would immediately lift the naval blockade on Iran in the strait of Hormuz and release a portion of the $8bn (£6bn) of its frozen assets. In return, Iran would agree to visits by International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to its bombed nuclear facilities, based on a previous abandoned agreement that had been reached in Cairo in September 2025.

Iran would open the strait of Hormuz on the second day, via a route it has already negotiated with Oman that they would jointly lodge with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

Iran has multiple other preconditions for opening the strait including ending the war in Lebanon, a withdrawal of US forces from the Iranian coastline, a commitment to lift some economic sanctions, and agreement to pay war reparations. The sequencing of these commitments has been at the heart of the mediation.

In the memorandum of understanding, a $300bn reconstruction and development fund was to be set up to help Iran recover economically, but it was never clear exactly how this proposal was to be funded.

Iran, in a triumphalist mood after Trump’s election wipeout, has been wary of allowing the UN nuclear inspectors back into the country, claiming it had lost faith in Rafael Grossi, the head of the inspectorate.

Tehran claims Grossi betrayed his duty to uphold the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, by failing to criticise the US for bombing Iran’s nuclear sites. It fears that material gathered by the inspectors would be handed over as targeting data to the Americans and Israelis.

In the parallel talks on opening the strait, Oman’s foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, spoke again to Iran about the future of the strait administration including the agreed route, the extent to which the agreement is temporary and the need to register the proposal with the IMO, either as a bilateral agreement or a joint regional proposal.