“I just believe they have no choice” but to accept the position of US President Donald Trump against enrichment, said Witkoff. “Obviously, they can say no, and they can test President Trump, but I think that would be an unwise thing to do.”
The comments came after Witkoff last month said the US would seek only to cap Iran’s uranium enrichment, but not end it altogether, contrary to the position of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Witkoff quickly backtracked, saying any nuclear deal with Iran “must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program.”
Speaking to Breitbart, Witkoff said Iran would have to dismantle its three known enrichment facilities in Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan. On the other hand, he said, the Iranians could hold onto their nuclear reactor in Bushehr, where “they have no ability to enrich, they have no ability to have centrifuges there, they can only use that facility for civilian purposes — making of electricity and things of that sort of civilian purposes.
“If that is what they choose to do, if they believe in that program, they ought to expand it if they want to,” said Witkoff, adding that his goal in the nuclear talks was to get Tehran to “voluntarily shift away from an enrichment program.”
“If we can get them to voluntarily do that, that is the most permanent way to make sure that they never get a weapon,” he said.
Iran, whose leaders are sworn to destroy Israel, says it opposes nuclear weapons. However, the Islamic Republic is enriching uranium to 60% — far higher than necessary for civilian uses, and a short step away from weapons-grade.
Iran also funds a regional network of anti-Israel proxies, including Gaza’s Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis. Getting Iran to stop arming those groups is a “secondary discussion,” Witkoff told Breitbart.
“We don’t want to confuse the nuclear discussion because that to us is the existential issue,” said Witkoff. “That’s the issue that needs to be solved today and quickly.”
Witkoff is set to travel to Oman on Sunday for the fourth round of Omani-mediated talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, a source familiar with the matter said, as Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news cited an Iranian negotiator as saying Tehran had agreed to resume talks.
The fourth round of negotiations, initially scheduled for May 3 in Rome, was postponed, with mediator Oman citing “logistical reasons."
itkoff told Breitbart that the fourth round had been delayed because “we didn’t think that the talks last week were going to be productive, because we needed to get to certain understandings with them, and hopefully this Sunday they will be productive.”
Witkoff was reportedly engaged over the past week in talks with Omani and Houthi officials that resulted in a US ceasefire in Yemen, announced by Trump on Tuesday. Sources cited by CNN said the US-Houthi truce talks aimed to provide momentum for the Iran nuclear talks.
