Qatar's foreign ministry says Tehran's visit continues mediation efforts, Al Jazeera reports; Iran needs to show good intentions and cease the threats against the Arab states

• It also needs to open up Hormuz for mediation efforts to succeed.

Qatar has a long-established role as an intermediary in the Gulf, having maintained channels to Tehran even through periods when its neighbours severed ties, and its public statements during mediation rounds have historically served as a rough barometer of progress: when Doha begins attaching conditions publicly, it has usually signalled that talks are stuck rather than advancing. The framing here, conditioning success on Iranian behaviour and on Hormuz, is notable because strait rhetoric from Iranian officials has in past episodes functioned as leverage to be traded away in negotiation rather than as intent to act; actual closure has never been executed, and the recurring pattern has been escalation in language followed by quiet de-escalation through third-party channels of exactly this kind. For crude, the relevant transmission has consistently run through freight rates, war-risk insurance premia and prompt spreads rather than through any physical loss of supply, with premia building on threats and bleeding out once mediation visibly resumes. The demand that Iran cease threats against Arab states also points to the Gulf capitals as the constituency Doha is speaking for, which in past rounds has meant Saudi and Emirati sign-off is the real gate to any de-escalation. Worth watching is whether Tehran reciprocates with its own goodwill gesture, since one-sided condition lists from mediators have historically preceded stalls rather than breakthroughs.