US and Iran hold separate talks in Qatar, agree to continue negotiations after Khamenei funeral

American and Iranian negotiators held separate meetings with Qatari and Pakistani mediators on Wednesday, making what host Qatar described as 'positive progress,' and agreed to continue discussions. The next round of talks will be scheduled 'at the earliest possible time' after the funeral of Iran's late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to Majed al-Ansari, a spokesman for Qatar's Foreign Ministry.

The funeral is set to begin Saturday in Tehran. U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, were in Qatar for the talks, alongside Iran's top negotiator, Kazem Gharibabadi.

Key sticking points remain

Negotiators are working to nail down specifics that would allow top leaders to finalise an agreement, but differences over the Strait of Hormuz and Lebanon remain major obstacles. A ship ran aground in the strait on Wednesday while using a route not approved by Iran, state television in Tehran reported. The vessel was identified as a foreign container ship, with no further details provided.

The report appeared designed to reinforce Tehran's claims of control over the strait, which the world has long treated as an international waterway. In peacetime, a fifth of all oil and natural gas passed through the Strait of Hormuz.

Strait of Hormuz tensions escalate

Since the United States and Israel launched the war against Iran on February 28, Iran has used its ability to choke off the waterway as a key source of leverage, disrupting global markets for energy and other critical goods. Under an interim deal, the U.S. and Iran agreed to allow ships to pass without paying charges for 60 days. But Tehran insists it must control vessel routes and later charge fees for passage, upending decades of established practice in the waterway.

The United States and many Gulf Arab states say they will not agree to the charges. An effort by Oman and a United Nations agency to launch a new route near Oman's shore sparked attacks across the Middle East last weekend, highlighting the deep tensions.

Iranian state TV on Wednesday said the ship 'ran aground with its cargo because of shallow waters along the route it had chosen and was unable to continue sailing.' It added that shippers needed to follow the instructions of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in the strait. The Guard's navy has repeatedly warned that 'any entry or exit through routes other than the Route of Authority in the Persian Gulf could lead to irreparable incidents.' The report did not mention two ships Iran attacked in recent days for attempting to pass through the strait without Tehran's permission, including one carrying crude oil from Qatar.

What this means for Nigeria

Any disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz directly impacts global oil prices, and by extension, Nigeria's crude earnings and foreign exchange reserves. With a fifth of the world's oil and gas passing through that waterway in normal times, continued instability there keeps energy markets volatile. For Nigerian businesses and consumers, this translates into higher fuel import costs and sustained pressure on the naira, as crude revenue remains the country's primary source of dollar inflows.