Witkoff says Iran negotiators started talks by claiming to have materials to make 11 nuclear bombs

U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said that Iranian negotiators started talks by claiming to have materials to make 11 nuclear bombs.

Witkoff told Fox News on Monday that 60% enriched uranium can be brought to 90%, which is weapons-grade, in about 7-10 days, and 20% enriched uranium can be made into weapons-grade in 3-4 weeks.

“In that first meeting, both the Iranian negotiators said to us, directly, with, you know, no shame, that they controlled 460 kilograms of 60%, 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 said.

Witkoff and President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, participated in three rounds of indirect talks with Iran last month, prior to U.S. military action against Iran, the New York Post reported.

“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. That’s how they opened up,” Witkoff said. “We, of course, responded that the president feels we have the inalienable right to stop you dead in your tracks.”

“I know this: They have 10,000, roughly, kilograms of fissionable material. That’s broken up into roughly 460 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium, another 1,000 kilograms of 20% enriched uranium … They manufacture their own centrifuges to enrich this material. So, there’s almost no stopping them. They have an endless supply of it,” he added.

Witkoff also said that he and Kushner offered to provide nuclear fuel to Iran for the next decade on the condition that it was not used for any weapons program.

“They rejected that, which 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.

“And we went in there and tried to make a fair deal with them, and 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,” Witkoff added. “And of course, they wanted us to report positivity — it was not positive, that meeting.”