U.S. President Donald Trump hailed the progress on Wednesday of indirect talks between Iran and the United States, saying there had been "very good meetings" in Doha.

"As far as things are going, the denuclearization of Iran is moving along well. They've had very good meetings, and we'll see," Trump told reporters as he prepared to board his new Qatar-gifted Air Force One plane for a trip to North Dakota.

The first Parliament in Syria's post-Assad era took shape Wednesday with the release of a list of 70 legislators picked up by interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa.

The inauguration of the new Parliament shows the country is moving ahead with drafting laws as the nation works on recovering from decades of iron-fist rule under the Assad family and a deadly war that has killed about half a million people.

A ship ran aground in the Strait of Hormuz after not running Iran's approved route through the water, Iranian state television reported Wednesday. The report identified the affected vessel as a foreign container ship, but offered no other immediate details.

The Iranian state TV report appeared aimed at underlining the claims Tehran has made since the U.S.-Iran war to control over the strait, which has long been considered by the world as an international waterway and saw a fifth of all oil and natural gas pass through it in peacetime.

Indirect talks in Doha between officials from the United States and Iran aimed at ending the Middle East war have started, a diplomat with knowledge of the talks told AFP on Wednesday.

The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks, confirmed negotiations were underway after they earlier said the U.S. and Iran were to hold "indirect technical talks on Wednesday in Doha with Qatari and Pakistani mediators".

Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio appear to be staking out differing approaches to carrying out President Donald Trump's national security agenda as the possible 2028 presidential rivals jostle for position in a divided Republican Party.

With vastly different backgrounds and policy experience, they have moved along separate paths to stake out territory: Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants with a long history in the Senate and major interest in Latin America, and Vance, a child of the Midwest and Marine Corps veteran who served in the Senate for only two years before being tapped as Trump's 2024 running mate, with a message of opposing foreign wars.

Gaza health officials said Israeli strikes killed five people including a child in the Palestinian territory.

Iran will respond to any U.S. violation of the memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war in the Middle East, its foreign ministry spokesperson said Tuesday, as delegations from both sides were expected in Qatar for indirect talks on the deal.

"We will not leave any action unanswered. As Iran's powerful armed forces have demonstrated, any act of aggression against the objectives of the Islamic Republic of Iran will be met with an immediate and decisive response," Esmaeil Baqaei told reporters at a weekly press conference.

Two U.S. envoys arrived in Qatar on Tuesday for talks with mediators about the implementation of an initial deal to end the war in Iran, an official said.

The visit by Steve Witkoff, U.S. President Donald Trump's special Mideast envoy, and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, comes after a weekend of crossfire in the Persian Gulf over efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping traffic.

Mediator Qatar said on Tuesday that no high-level meetings or direct talks between the United States and Iran were planned in Doha after Washington said it had sent a top delegation for negotiations.

"To the best of my knowledge, there are no direct meetings scheduled between the two parties in the coming days," foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari told reporters in Doha, adding that the American team would meet with mediators. "To my knowledge there is no high-level meeting between the two sides."

The United States and Iran on Monday separately announced they will send delegations to Qatar this week, though Tehran insisted it has not agreed to meet with the U.S. "at any level" after attacks across the Persian Gulf over the weekend challenged negotiations to end the war.

U.S. President Donald Trump said the Islamic Republic had requested a meeting with U.S. counterparts and that they planned to convene Tuesday in Doha, Qatar.