Tehran, July 1: Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said Iran will not enter negotiations with the United States on a final agreement unless certain paragraphs of a recently signed peace memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two sides are implemented.

Qalibaf, also the head of Iran’s negotiating team, made the remarks in an interview with state-run IRIB TV while elaborating on the latest developments pertaining to the implementation of the peace MoU and talks with the United States.

He said Iran’s recent trip to Switzerland sought to implement the MoU provisions for ending the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, lifting the US naval blockade, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, issuing US waivers for Iranian crude oil exports, and releasing frozen Iranian assets, Xinhua news agency reported.

Unless these five preliminary paragraphs are fulfilled, the other paragraphs’ implementation will not begin, Qalibaf said.

He said Iran, the United States and Lebanon agreed to form a joint committee to enforce the ceasefire, ensure the war’s end in Lebanon, and uphold Lebanese sovereignty, adding that Iran and the United States, two of the three parties, already named their representatives.

Iran both pursues the path of dialogue and responds with force wherever necessary, he added.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said Iran has agreed not to acquire a nuclear weapon ahead of fresh negotiations in Doha, expressing confidence that the US was making progress both diplomatically and militarily while insisting Tehran would not be allowed to develop nuclear arms.

Speaking in the Oval Office before signing a presidential memorandum on vehicle repairs, Trump said officials were already travelling to Qatar for talks scheduled on Tuesday.

“There’ll be a meeting on that tomorrow, in Doha… we’ll see how that goes,” Trump said. “The meeting in Doha is going to be perhaps important, perhaps not. We’re going to find out.”

The President struck an optimistic tone about the negotiations, saying the US had gained the upper hand after recent military action against Iran’s nuclear programme.

On June 18, Iran and the United States signed the MoU on ending the war in the region. On June 22, technical negotiations between Iran and the United States began in Switzerland following high-level consultations between Iranian and US delegations the previous day with the mediation of Pakistan and Qatar.

Washington, June 30: Senior US and Indian officials projected growing confidence in the India-US strategic partnership, saying a long-awaited bilateral trade agreement is nearing completion as the two countries deepen cooperation in artificial intelligence, semiconductors, defence manufacturing and resilient supply chains.

The broad consensus emerged at the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) Leadership Summit, where officials from both governments, lawmakers and business leaders described the relationship as entering a new phase driven by technology, investment and shared strategic interests.

US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor said negotiations on a bilateral trade agreement had entered their final stage.

“Most of this deal is complete,” Gor said. “There’s a few items that remain from both sides, but it’s in the last one or 2 per cent of that deal.” He said both governments were working to conclude the agreement after nearly 18 months of negotiations and described it as a “win-win situation” for both countries.

Gor also dismissed suggestions that bilateral ties had weakened, saying cooperation across trade, defence and people-to-people exchanges remained strong. He announced plans for a meeting of Quad foreign ministers in the Philippines in the coming weeks and said the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi had helped attract $20.5 billion in new investment into the United States this year.

India’s Ambassador to the United States, Vinay Mohan Kwatra said India’s economic transformation had positioned it as “an indispensable anchor” of global growth, stability and trusted partnerships. He said sustained reforms, manufacturing expansion and investments in advanced technologies had placed India on course to become a $7 trillion economy by the end of the decade.

Kwatra identified biotechnology, artificial intelligence, semiconductors and quantum technologies as the next frontiers of India-U.S. cooperation, while saying the two countries’ goal of expanding bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030 would depend on closer integration of supply chains, investment, manufacturing and skilled talent.

Technology competition with China featured prominently throughout the summit.

Jacob Helberg, the US Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment, described India as “the only country on earth that fundamentally rivals China” in engineering talent and called it America’s most important long-term partner in building trusted technology ecosystems.

Helberg said Washington wanted to diversify critical technology supply chains beyond China while working with India to develop a shared artificial intelligence developer ecosystem.

In his opening remarks, USISPF President Mukesh Aghi said American companies were quietly reducing dependence on China while expanding manufacturing and research operations in India.

The summit also underscored bipartisan support in Washington for closer ties with New Delhi.

Republican Sen. Steve Daines said India and the United States together represented the only combination capable of matching China’s scale in innovation.

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner called India one of America’s “top two or three” strategic partners over the long term. Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna argued that the relationship should ultimately be anchored in shared democratic values as well as expanding defence and economic cooperation.

Former US Ambassador Kenneth Juster placed the current relationship in historical context, describing people-to-people ties as the “secret sauce” that had sustained bilateral relations for decades. He also launched USISPF’s commemorative coffee table book, We the People: 250 Voices that Have Shaped the US-India Relationship.

The discussions reflected a shared assessment that India-US ties have moved well beyond their traditional focus on diplomacy and defence. Officials and business leaders repeatedly pointed to technology, supply chain resilience, manufacturing, energy security and investment as the defining priorities of the relationship’s next phase.

Baghdad, June 29: Iraqi President Nizar Amedi and Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi held separate meetings here with visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi to discuss the recent Iran-US memorandum of understanding (MoU) aimed at ending their war.

Amedi stressed the importance of dialogue in fostering a more stable regional environment and paving the way for lasting understandings that address outstanding issues, according to a statement by the Iraqi presidency.

Al-Zaidi affirmed that Iraq supports prioritising an end to wars and adopting dialogue and negotiations as the path toward strengthening stability in the region, noting that this would create greater opportunities for development and prosperity for the peoples of the region, said a statement by his media office.

For his part, Araghchi expressed Tehran’s appreciation for Iraq’s role in containing crises and bridging differences. He reaffirmed Iran’s commitment to building strong relations with its Arab neighbors and maintaining close coordination with Iraq to expand bilateral cooperation, Xinhua news agency reported.

The meetings came amid military exchanges between Washington and Tehran. The United States conducted strikes on Iranian targets on Friday and Saturday, citing “continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping” in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran responded by striking US military positions in the region.

Meanwhile, the United States and Iran have agreed to pause mutual attacks “for now” and hold talks on Tuesday in Doha, the capital of Qatar, to work out their dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, US media outlet Axios reported.

The two sides will stand down “for now” and “vessels can move freely” as technical talks are set to continue, a US official was quoted as saying.

The Tuesday talks were originally set to be held in Switzerland and focused on Iran’s nuclear program. However, renewed tensions in the Strait of Hormuz prompted the talks to be moved to Doha, shifting the focus to shipping security in the strategic waterway.