Qatari Emir Expected to Visit

Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is expected to travel to Tehran soon at the head of a top-ranking political-economic delegation. 
The Islamic Republic’s official news agency, IRNA, first announced the news, before Hamidreza Dehqani, Iran’s ambassador in Doha confirmed it on his Instagram page, writing: “And Now a Meeting in Tehran.”
The visit comes only few months after President Ebrahim Raisi’s trip to Doha in late February, where the two countries signed several memorandums of understanding. 
The emir’s trip is aimed at pursuing those political and economic cooperation agreements, besides talks on ways to release Iran’s frozen assets. 
Iran has billions of dollars in foreign banks, including in South Korea, Iraq, China and Japan, which have been blocked due to the United States’ sanctions. 
IRNA had reported in late April that a regional top official was expected travel to Tehran to discuss a practical mechanism to free those assets under an agreement. 

Regional Relations Prioritized 

The administration of President Raisi has put relations with regional and neighboring countries on top of its foreign policy agenda. 
He said in February that his government seeks transformation and growth in regional relations, adding that his trip to Qatar would mark a new chapter in Tehran-Doha ties.
During that visit, 14 agreement were signed, including one between the two countries’ free trade zone authorities, and another between the Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran and its Qatari counterpart, according to Al Jazeera. 
An agreement on tourism, a two-year agreement on sports and youth, and one on education were also signed while an energy deal was reached between Iran’s Tavanir (Electric Power Generation Organization) and Qatar’s Electricity and Water Company.
Three agreements on ports and maritime affairs, including one on maritime transport, one between the two countries’ port authorities, and another on an idea to connect Iran and Qatar via an underwater tunnel, were also reached.
Two more agreements dealt with culture and media; one was a two-year deal for cultural cooperation with the other outlining television and radio cooperation.
Lastly, three agreements were signed on consular and diplomatic cooperation.
The first detailed visa waivers for diplomatic trips, another covered “political consultations” on issues of joint interest between the two countries’ foreign ministries while the third agreement, between the foreign ministries’ research centers, was related to “political education” and research.
Raisi also met a group of Qatari businesspeople and investors, and called for the establishment of a joint business center in Doha that would facilitate investments, IRNA reported at the time. 
Earlier in January, Qatari Foreign Minister Abdulrahman Al-Thani and his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian had made mutual trips to each other’s capitals, where they discussed ways to boost bilateral relations in the face of recent regional developments and to contribute to stability and peace in the region.  
Qatar had also vowed to use all existing open channels with Iran and the United States to bring their ideas closer on ways to restore the 2015 nuclear deal.
The US has quit the deal and Iran has scaled down its commitments in response to the reimposition of sanctions by Washington.
The two have been indirectly discussing ways to return to compliance in the Austrian capital Vienna since April 2021, but the negotiations seem to have reached an impasse over a few remaining issues.