TEHRAN – An Iraqi news website has quoted an informed source in Qatar’s foreign ministry as confirming that the new round of nuclear talks between Iran and the U.S. will be hosted by Qatar. 

The website, Middle East News, said that the next round of talks will be held in Doha, citing the informed source. 

Following the recent visit by the European Union’s foreign policy chief to Tehran it was announced that the venue for the Iran nuclear talks will be moved from Vienna to a Persian Gulf country. Josep Borrell didn’t say which country will be the venue for the talks. But Iranian officials and media said Qatar will be most likely to play host for the talks.

In addition to the venue, the format of the talks has changed too. According to Borrell, the new round of talks in the Persian Gulf will no longer be held in the P4+1 formant. Instead, it will be talks between Iran, the EU, and the U.S., a big change that seems to have moved past the traditional format of the P5+1 group of countries. 

The resumption of talks in a Persian Gulf country is also important for another reason: it comes amid Iranian efforts to patch up relations with the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council countries, most notably Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in line with the Raisi administration’s new foreign policy doctrine known as “neighborhood policy”.

Raisi’s neighborhood policy could receive another boost from holding talks in Qatar as it will likely signal Iran’s good faith and seriousness to forge ahead with mending fences. Iranian and Arab officials have exchanged visits over the last few months and they continue to keep in close contact with each other. President Raisi has visited Oman and Qatar and he has a visit to the UAE on his agenda though the exact date of this visit is yet to be set.