President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff is pulling back the curtain on what he describes as a stunning admission from Iranian negotiators during last month’s high-stakes talks — a revelation that, if accurate, underscores just how close the standoff may have come to a nuclear tipping point.
Appearing Monday night on Hannity, Witkoff said Iranian officials told U.S. negotiators directly that the Islamic Republic possessed 460 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent — material that, once brought to weapons-grade levels, could produce as many as 11 nuclear bombs.
“Both the Iranian negotiators said to us directly with no shame that they controlled 460 kilograms of 60% [enriched uranium],” Witkoff said. “And they’re aware that that could make 11 nuclear bombs. And that was the beginning of their negotiating stance.”
The comments shed new light on three rounds of indirect talks held in Oman beginning Feb. 6 and concluding in Geneva on Feb. 26. Witkoff and Jared Kushner represented the United States in what he described as a final attempt to avoid military confrontation.
According to Witkoff, the tone was defiant from the outset.
“Jared and I opened up with the Iranian negotiators telling us they had the inalienable right to enrich all their nuclear fuel that they possessed,” he recounted. “We responded that the president feels we have the inalienable right to stop you dead in your tracks.”
Witkoff elaborated that Iran’s nuclear stockpile included roughly 10,000 kilograms of fissionable material, including 460 kilograms enriched to 60 percent and approximately 1,000 kilograms enriched to 20 percent. The 60 percent material, he said, could be elevated to 90 percent weapons-grade purity within a week to 10 days. The 20 percent stockpile could reach weapons-grade levels within three to four weeks.
“They manufacture their own centrifuges,” Witkoff noted, suggesting Iran had achieved a level of domestic capability that made containment increasingly difficult. “They were proud of it. They were proud that they had evaded oversight protocols to get to a place where they could deliver 11 nuclear bombs.”
Witkoff said the U.S. offered an alternative: a decade-long supply of nuclear fuel for civilian use, contingent on Tehran abandoning enrichment tied to weapons development. He claimed Iran rejected the proposal outright.
“That told us at that very moment that they had no notion of doing anything other than retaining enrichment for the purpose of weaponizing,” he said.
With the U.S.-Israeli conflict against Iran now entering its fourth day, Witkoff characterized Tehran’s negotiating posture as overconfident. “They thought they could strong-arm us,” he said. By the second meeting, he suggested, the prospects for a deal appeared dim, though a third round in Geneva was pursued “just to give it the last college try.”
“It was not positive,” he concluded.
If Witkoff’s account is accurate, the negotiations were less a diplomatic reset and more a stark confirmation of how advanced — and unapologetic — Iran’s nuclear ambitions had become.
