While UN issues mixed signals, Witkoff exposes Tehran’s nuclear evasion ‘pride’

Steve Witkoff’s astonishing details of his conversations with Iran and their boastful statements about them Nuclear programme It seems that these talks did not find deaf ears in the United Nations nuclear agency.

Days after the joint US-Israel campaign against Iran, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, published in a letter to X saying: “There is no evidence that Iran is building a nuclear bomb.”

Fox News Digital asked the IAEA how to assess potential nuclear weapon development without access to Iranian facilities, but had not received any response at press time.

Grossi’s post came as US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff provided details to Fox News’ Sean Hannity earlier this week about his conversations with the regime before the US and Israel launched their military operation against Tehran.

Witkoff revealed that the negotiators said they had an “inalienable right” to enrich uranium. When Witkoff responded that the Trump administration had “the inalienable right to stop [them, ]He explained that the negotiators said this was just the starting point.

“They have approximately 10,000 kilograms of fissile material that has been divided into approximately 460 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium, and another 1,000 kilograms of 20% enriched uranium,” Witkoff explained. “They make their own centrifuges to enrich this material, so there it is It almost doesn’t stop them. They have an endless supply of it. 60% of the material can be brought up to 90% – that’s weapons grade – in about a week, and maybe 10 days out. “The 20% can be converted to weapons grade within three to four weeks.”

Witkoff added that during his first meeting with the negotiators, they said, “There is no shame that they control 460 kilograms by 60%, and they know that this can make 11 nuclear bombs, and that was the beginning of this negotiating position.”

“They were proud of it. They were proud that they had evaded all kinds of censorship protocols to get to a place where they could Delivery of 11 nuclear bombsWitkoff said.

US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff arrives at his hotel during a new round of talks between the United States and Iran on Iran’s nuclear program, in Geneva on February 26, 2026. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Image)

However, Grossi, who is running to become the next UN secretary-general, acknowledged in his post on X that Iran maintains a “large stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium” and said the Islamic Republic had not allowed inspectors full access to its programme. With these facts in mind, he said the IAEA “will not be in a position to provide assurances that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful” until Iran “helps… resolve the outstanding safeguards issues.”

Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital: “No one paid much attention to Rafael Grossi throughout the Biden years when he publicly warned about it over and over again Iran refused to cooperate With and providing false statements to the International Atomic Energy Agency about ongoing investigations into undeclared facilities, operatives and nuclear materials.

A lawmaker warns that the United States lacks a clear plan for Iran’s enriched uranium

“There are some basic facts that are being ignored today,” the former Trump administration official said. “The IAEA board found last year that Iran was in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. To this day, Grossi has maintained that the IAEA cannot verify that Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful.”

He continued: “This is not Iraq where we lacked strong public evidence of a nuclear weapons program. Iran built almost every part of its nuclear weapons program in plain sight, with arming progress at undisclosed sites controlled by the Defense Innovation and Research Organization. And if the administration had evidence that the regime was moving quickly to reshape key elements of that program – from the manufacture of advanced centrifuges to the completion of a new underground enrichment site along with the development of delivery vehicle programs – the president was completely justified in applying the red line.” Which he put in place after the midnight operation.” Hammer.”

Map of Iranian nuclear facilities attacked by the United States in Operation Midnight Hammer. (Fox News)

Spencer Faragaso, a senior fellow at the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), told Fox News Digital that his organization calculated before the 12-day war in June 2025 that Iran possessed 440.9 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium. With about 24 or 25 kilograms of 90% enriched uranium required for each weapon, Faragaso said the country has the capacity to produce 11 weapons in a single month.

Faragaso said there are still questions about whether the Iranians have access to their enriched materials, and whether they possess additional centrifuges that may not have been installed at the facilities that were struck.

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“The ability to enrich uranium to the point of making weapons is actually a difficult task,” he said, explaining that it would require a new enrichment site and components and materials that “Iran will need to either recover from its destroyed facilities” or “import illicitly from abroad.” With a few hundred centrifuges, enough for two or three cascades, Faragaso said the Iranians could have enriched their uranium stockpile to weapons grade.

“To be clear, the successes gained from… June war is He added: “Not always. Regime officials have spoken publicly about their desire to rebuild their enrichment program and their nuclear program. The more time passes, the worse the situation will become. Things will not improve, especially regarding the ballistic missile program.”

Satellite images taken on January 30, 2026 show a new roof over a previously destroyed building at the Natanz nuclear site. (2026 PLANET LABS PBC/Handout via Reuters)

He said that the Iranians had previously expressed their desire to open a fourth enrichment site, which the International Atomic Energy Agency reported was in Isfahan. According to Faragaso, there was “absolutely no confirmation” about where the site would be or how long the construction process would be.

The group is now tracking a March 3 Israeli raid on Min Zadayi, a site that Faragaso said was “completely unknown” to them previously. The IDF reported on X that the site “was used by a group of nuclear scientists who worked to develop a key component of nuclear weapons.”

The State Department referred Fox News Digital to the Secretary of State’s statements Marco Rubio To the press on Tuesday about Iran’s nuclear program.

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He added, “This terrorist and extremist regime led by clerics can never be allowed to possess nuclear weapons.” Explaining that the Islamic Republic is “ready to slaughter its own people in the streets,” Rubio directed members of the press to “imagine what they will do to us. Imagine what they will do to others. Under President Trump that will never happen, ever.”

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