U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff revealed that Iranian negotiators had boasted to him that they had enough enriched uranium for 11 nuclear bombs.
In his first interview since the United States and Israel struck Iran over the weekend, Witkoff divulged details of the high-level negotiations with Tehran that led President Donald Trump to decide to launch the largest combat operation since the 2003 Iraq War. Speaking with Fox News’s Sean Hannity, Witkoff voiced his shock over the boastful, threatening attitude of Iranian negotiators.
“In that first meeting, both the Iranian negotiators said to us directly — with no shame — that they controlled 460 kilograms of 60% [enriched uranium] and that they’re aware that could make 11 nuclear bombs,” he said.
Despite “Operation Midnight Hammer,” which decimated three Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025, Witkoff said 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,” and boasted of having an “inalienable right” to enrich nuclear fuel.
“We responded that the president feels we have the inalienable right to stop you dead in your tracks,” Witkoff said.
“Jared [Kushner] and I just sort of looked at ourselves flummoxed, and said, ‘We’re really in for it now,’” he added.
Witkoff’s reveal was previously known before Operation Midnight Hammer — international monitors repeatedly voiced concern over Iran’s possession of 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% U-235, which could relatively quickly be enriched to weapons-grade at 90%. The most recent analysis put the number of nuclear bombs Iran could develop with this stockpile at 10, around what Witkoff said the Iranians believed they could get.
The enriched uranium stockpile was widely believed to have been moved from Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant before the U.S. attack.
In the interview, Witkoff reiterated his claim that the 60% enriched uranium could be enriched to 90% within a week or 10 days. Though Iran had its stockpile of 60% enriched uranium, the facilities needed to enrich it to 90% were presumably destroyed in Operation Midnight Hammer.
Aside from the issue of nuclear weapons, Witkoff said that the Iranians were fully uncooperative, clearing the way for “Operation Epic Fury.”
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“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,” he continues.
“They wanted us to report positivity. It was not positive that meeting,” Witkoff says.