Top U.S. diplomat Marco Rubio met Saturday with the leader of Mideast ally Qatar, the State Department said, highlighting the Gulf state’s role as a key intermediary for Washington as it awaited Tehran’s response on a peace proposal.

“The Secretary expressed appreciation for Qatar’s partnership on a range of issues,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement on the meeting between Rubio and Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is also Qatar’s Moreign Minister.

“The Secretary and the Foreign Minister also discussed U.S. support for Qatar’s defense, and the importance of continued close coordination to deter threats and promote stability and security across the Middle East.”

-AFP

The U.S. Treasury on Friday announced sanctions against ‌10 individuals and companies, including several in China and ⁠Hong Kong, for aiding efforts by Iran’s military to secure weapons and raw ‌materials used to build Tehran’s Shahed drones.

The Treasury move, ‌first reported by Reuters, ‌comes ⁠days before U.S. President Donald Trump ⁠plans to travel to China for a meeting with President Xi Jinping and as efforts ‌to end the war with Iran have stalled.

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U.S. President Donald Trump said the ceasefire with Iran was still in place Thursday, despite exchanges of fire with Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz.

“They trifled with us today. We blew them away,” he told reporters in Washington, insisting that talks were “going very well.”

-AFP