• Oman rescues 25 sailors after merchant ship attacked, set ablaze
• Iran halts three oil tankers in Hormuz for ‘unauthorised crossing’
• G20 talks overshadowed by deep rifts over conflicts in Iran, Ukraine

TEHRAN: A Qatari delegation arrived in Tehran on Friday for talks with senior Iranian officials, state media reported, as mediators press efforts to revive peace talks with the United States amid rising fears of a return to hostilities in the Middle East war.

The delegation, led by a senior adviser to Qatar’s prime minister, came to discuss “bilateral relations … as well as regional developments”, the state news agency IRNA said.

It is the latest in a string of visits by senior officials from several countries to the Iranian capital in recent days, as fears grow that the war, now in its eighth month, could flare up again.

Qatar and Pakistan have mediated talks since an April ceasefire. The war began on Feb 28, when US-Israeli strikes on Iran killed the former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran retaliated with attacks on Israel and US assets, and has since blocked ships from using the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries about a fifth of global oil consumption.

The tension at sea was underlined on Friday when Oman said it had rescued 25 sailors from a merchant ship that was targeted and set ablaze.

Muscat’s navy carried out an evacuation of the crew of the Panama-flagged RITI after a fire broke out on board, Oman’s Maritime Security Centre said.

Separately, Iran said three oil tankers had been halted as they crossed the blockaded strait. The Revolutionary Guards said two vessels attempting to pass through an unauthorised route “encountered incidents and were brought to a halt” in waters south of the strait after ignoring radio warnings.

A third supertanker, carrying two million barrels of oil, exploded and caught fire after striking a naval mine while on an unauthorised route, the Guards added.

Meanwhile, the fallout from the conflict has reached the diplomatic stage in the United States. Speaking to G20 counterparts in Atlanta, including Russia’s Sergei Lavrov, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said the world faced a critical “moment of choosing” in tackling “interconnected economic and geopolitical crises” as the wars in Ukraine and Iran deepen divisions among members.

The strains were visible before the two-day meeting began. A traditional group photograph was cancelled after European officials objected to appearing alongside Lavrov.

The German foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, said: “There is no normality with Russia.”

Experts and diplomats said the deep rifts over the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East were likely to derail any unified action or joint statement.

The gathering, held just days before the US midterm elections, also comes as global energy prices have soared since the US war on Iran began. It sets the stage for a G20 leaders’ summit in December at Donald Trump’s Doral resort in Miami.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2026