Iran claimed ability to build 11 nuclear bombs, Trump's envoy Witkoff says
Steve Witkoff (photo: Getty Images)
Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff said that Iran boasted during negotiations that it has enough enriched uranium to build 11 nuclear bombs, The Times of Israel reports.
Read also: US braces for intensified strikes on Iran within 24 hours — CNN
According to Witkoff, Iran's effective admission came during the first round of negotiations earlier this year.
"In that first meeting, both the Iranian negotiators said to us directly — with no shame — that they controlled 460 kilograms of 60% (enriched uranium – ed.) and that they're aware that could make 11 nuclear bombs," he said on Fox News.
Envoy added that Iranian negotiators "were proud that they had evaded all sorts of oversight protocols to get to a place where they could deliver 11 nuclear bombs."
According to Witkoff, during that first meeting, Iranians also boasted of having "an inalienable right" to enrich nuclear fuel.
"We responded that the president (Trump – ed.) feels we have the inalienable right to stop you dead in your tracks. Jared and I just sort of looked at ourselves flummoxed, and said, 'We're really in for it now,'" the special envoy of US President Donald Trump said.
Based on Witkoff's words, Trump sent him and Jared Kushner to negotiations to reach an agreement under which Tehran would agree to eliminate its missile program, stop supporting proxy states, dismantle its naval fleet "so we can have freedom of the seas," and stop enriching uranium.
However, already during the second round of negotiations, it became clear that there would be no result. The third round was the last attempt.
"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. They wanted us to report positivity. It was not positive that meeting," Witkoff concluded.
Reason for the operation against Iran and the threat of nuclear weapons
On February 28, Israel, together with the United States, began bombing Iran, with even greater intensity than in June 2025.
On the first day of operation, US President Donald Trump said in an interview with the media that the reason for the decision was the failure of negotiations on the nuclear deal. He also claimed that if the operation had not begun, Iran could have created a nuclear weapon within two weeks.
In addition, last night he wrote a post stating that if he had not withdrawn in 2018 from the nuclear deal concluded between former US President Barack Obama and Iran, Tehran would already have had nuclear weapons in 2023.
