WASHINGTON -- The United States and Iran have agreed to halt tit-for-tat attacks, meet again for talks, and allow shipping to flow safely through the Strait of Hormuz, a US official told RFE/RL, with one media report saying the talks will take place in Qatar.
"Technical talks are slated to continue on all areas of the [memorandum of understanding]. Both sides will stand down for now, and vessels can move freely [through the strait]," the official said late on June 28.
Axios, also citing a US official, reported the two sides plan to meet on June 30 in the Qatari capital, Doha.
"We decided to stop all the kinetic activity," Axios quoted the US official as saying, using the term generally referring to military strikes.
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"Nothing has been canceled," the official told dpa.
Tehran didn't comment and its position on continuing talks was not immediately known.
The remarks come after Iran, citing US attacks on the country and what it said were violations of the recently agreed memorandum of understanding (MoU), refused to meet with US negotiators as scheduled on June 28.
"One of the reasons is checking if we have access to the unfrozen funds. If there is no access, then this condition has not been fulfilled," said Mehdi Fazaeli of the Iranian supreme leader's office.
Further details were not immediately available.
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Iran fired on commercial vessels in the strait over the weekend, leading US forces to strike Iranian coastal radar and military sites in an effort to protect shipping.
On June 28, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi claimed Tehran had regained sole control over shipping in the Strait of Hormuz for the next 30 days, warning against any attempt to bypass Iranian-approved routes.
"Any interference or attempt to create parallel structures would further complicate the situation, generate additional tensions, and delay the reopening of this strategically vital waterway," Araqchi said, reiterating the claim that responsibility for the strait lies solely with Iran.
Earlier that day, Iran launched missiles and drones targeting US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain shortly after US President Donald Trump warned Washington could escalate its military campaign if Tehran failed to abide by the cease-fire.
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The escalation followed US strikes on Iranian military sites hours earlier, which Washington said were carried out in response to Iranian attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
US Central Command said its forces targeted Iranian drone storage facilities, radar installations, and coastal surveillance infrastructure after a tanker was hit by an Iranian drone on June 27.
Trump and his Iranian counterpart, Masud Pezeshkian, in early June signed a 14-point interim MoU that would give the sides 60 days to negotiate a final agreement seeking to end the war.
Qatar, along with Pakistan, has been acting as a mediator between Washington and Tehran in the current round of talks.
The interim agreement was intended to halt fighting that erupted after US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic while broader negotiations continued.
The next session, on June 30, was originally scheduled for Switzerland to discuss Iran's nuclear program, but Axios reported that the latest escalation of attacks on both sides led to the sessions being shifted to Qatar and that they would now focus on the Strait of Hormuz.
During previous negotiating sessions, Washington and Tehran agreed to establish a "hotline" between the US military and Iran's hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to coordinate vessel traffic and other matters. However, that line was reportedly not operational as of June 27.