Iran Denies US Claims of Continued Talks and Qatar Meeting

The denial matters less as a diplomatic spat than as a signal about the credibility of the negotiation channel itself. When one side publicly characterizes talks as ongoing and the other calls that a lie, the gap is about whether a channel exists at all, not merely its terms. That distinction feeds directly into risk sentiment around the region and the assets most sensitive to it. The open question is whether Tehran's demand for a clear response to its conditions gets answered, or whether the public contradiction hardens into an absence of contact.