US President Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, revealed on Monday that, during his talks with Iran on a potential nuclear deal, the Iranians boasted of their ability to make 11 nuclear bombs.
Speaking to Sean Hannity on Fox News, Witkoff also stated that it was clear during the talks that the Iranians were not interested in reaching a deal.
“The 20 percent material can be brought to 90 percent, that's weapons grade, in roughly one week, maybe 10 days at the outside. The 20 percent can be brought to weapons grade inside of three to four weeks," he said.
“In that first meeting, both the Iranian negotiators said to us directly, with no shame, that they controlled 460 kilograms of 60 percent, and they're aware that that could make 11 nuclear bombs, and that was the beginning of their negotiating stance. So they were proud of it. They were proud that they had evaded all sorts of oversight protocols to get to a place where they could deliver 11 nuclear bombs," Witkoff told Hannity.
“It was pretty silly, but they thought they could strong-arm us," recalled Witkoff, who added, “You know, President Trump sent me and Jared [Kushner] there to to really determine on his behalf whether they were serious about doing a deal that that addressed his objectives, which are elimination of their of their missile program, elimination of their advocacy and support for proxies, which is destabilizing the entire Middle East, elimination of their Navy so we can have freedom of the seas and not be threatened with the shutdown of the Gulf of Hormuz. And finally, no nuclear enrichment that can get them to weapons grade, which means no nuclear bomb."
He continued, “And we went in there and tried to make a fair deal with them. And it was it was it was very, very clear that it was going to be impossible probably by the end of the second meeting. But we then went back for the third meeting just to give it the last college try. And, of course, they thought they wanted us to report positivity. It was not positive, that meeting."
The US and Iran held the aforementioned three rounds of nuclear talks as President Trump beefed up the US military presence in the Middle East and mulled US strikes on Iran.
After a meeting in Geneva this past Thursday, but Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, confirmed progress and stated that "technical talks" would resume in Vienna, Austria this week.
On Saturday morning, the US and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran, eliminating its Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and several other top Iranian leaders.