‘THEY WERE PROUD OF IT’: Witkoff Reveals Chilling Details Of Iranian Nuclear Arrogance

In an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity, Trump negotiator Steve Witkoff offered a chilling account of the failed talks that preceded the recent escalation with Iran, arguing that the regime was not seeking a deal but instead was intent on building an arsenal.

Witkoff described the scene where Iranian negotiators, emboldened by years of strategic ambiguity, attempted to strong-arm the United States. According to Witkoff, the regime’s arrogance was on full display from the jump:

So just to give you a little bit of a taste for how these three days… Negotiations went three separate times, 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. We, of course, responded that the president feels we have the inalienable right to stop you dead in your tracks. They then went on to say that beyond the inalienable right to enrich, that that was going to be their starting point. And Jared and I just sort of looked at ourselves, flummoxed, and said, well, we’re really in for it now.

Witkoff said the Trump administration even offered a good-faith alternative to prevent catastrophe: the U.S. would pay for civilian fuel if Iran agreed to cease all enrichment for ten years.

“We actually had that. And they rejected that,” Witkoff noted, “which told us at that very moment that they had no notion of doing anything other than retaining enrichment for the purpose of weaponizing.”

The most harrowing moment of the interview came when Witkoff laid out the sheer proximity of Iran to a nuclear breakout — a reality the Iranians bragged about during the talks. Witkoff outlined what he described as Iran’s breakout capacity.

According to Witkoff, Iran currently possesses roughly 10,000 kilograms of enriched material, including approximately 460 kilograms enriched to 60% purity and another 1,000 kilograms at 20%. He argued that the 60% stockpile could be further enriched to weapons-grade levels within days.

Witkoff said Iranian negotiators “said to us directly with no shame that they controlled 460 kilograms” enriched to 60%, and they were aware that such material could theoretically be converted into enough weapons-grade uranium for as many as 11 bombs.

“They were proud of it,” he said. “They were proud that they had evaded all sorts of oversight protocols to get to a place where they could deliver 11 nuclear bombs.”

As Hannity noted, it “defies all logic and reason” that the regime thought they could dictate terms to Donald Trump while sitting on a nuclear powder keg.

Despite the administration’s efforts to address the missile program and proxy destabilization, Witkoff concluded it was “impossible” to find a viable partner for peace. According to Witkoff, the negotiations revealed how close Tehran was to a potential nuclear breakout, and why the White House concluded diplomacy had run its course.