Witkoff: Tehran gave zero ground in talks leading up to war

U.S. President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said in an interview on Tuesday that Iranian negotiators had left no space for compromise on their nuclear enrichment program.

Witkoff, together with Trump administration senior advisor Jared Kushner, were tasked by Trump with trying to reach an agreement with the Iranians that would restrain their nuclear ambitions.

“We were intent on getting it if we could,” Witkoff told Fox News host Sean Hannity.

“They opened up by challenging us,” he said. His Iranian counterparts announced they had the “inalienable right” to enrich uranium. Witkoff responded that the president had the “inalienable right” to stop them from enriching.

The Iranian negotiators next said that they had 460 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium, and it would take a week to 10 days to raise it to 90%, or weapon grade. “So it was a clear threat. They were boasting about having it,” he said.

“At the same time, they were attesting to wanting nuclear for civil purposes. There is no reason whatsoever to be enriching past 20% unless you’re going for a weapon,” said Witkoff.

The Iranians then issued another challenge. They told the U.S. team: “You’re not going to get from us diplomatically what you could not achieve militarily,” he said.

The United States and Israel in June of last year had destroyed Iran’s three main uranium enrichment centers at Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow, said Witkoff, but the Iranians wouldn’t admit it. “They were basically saying that we didn’t,” he told Hannity.

The U.S. delegation offered the Iranians free uranium fuel for an extended period for civilian purposes in exchange for genuine oversight of their nuclear program. The Iranians said this would be “an assault on their dignity,” which Witkoff said was an “excuse, a subterfuge” to hide the fact that they needed enrichment to build a nuclear weapon.

“It would have changed the dynamic in the Mideast and we couldn’t allow it. A second North Korea in the Mideast would have been untenable. And everybody on our foreign foreign policy team knew it. And the president was very clear-minded about it,” said Witkoff.

Asked about claims that Israel pushed Trump into war, Witkoff said Iran represented “a clear and present danger” and that the president had made a good-faith effort to reach a deal through diplomacy.

“The president was exhaustive in asking us what space we felt we had to get a deal done,” he said. “We had no space, and we reported it to him earnestly,” after which the president showed “incredible courage and leadership” in going forward with a strike, he added. “The country ought to be very gratified that we have him leading.”