The Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Abbas Araghchi, was forced on Saturday to confirm the version given by Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, about what happened in the nuclear negotiations prior to the outbreak of the armed conflict.
In an interview with MS NOW, Araghchi admitted that he actually mentioned to the American delegation that Iran has enough enriched material to make ten nuclear bombs, clarifying that the exact number he cited was ten, and not eleven, as Witkoff pointed out, but he maintained that with that mention he did not want to constitute a threat that would lead to war, but rather a demonstration of the magnitude of the concession that Tehran was willing to offer.
“I never said we were going to make the bombs,” Araghchi defended himself. “I said that we have 440 kilos of 60% enriched material, and that's no secret; it's in the IAEA reports. I said that this material, if it gets richer, may be enough for ten bombs, according to their own experts. And that we are willing to give it up, to dilute it, to lower it to lower levels
.”The foreign minister's argument is not easily supported, since the process to go from 60% enriched to 95% (necessary to produce an atomic bomb) is extremely short if you already have the installed capacity and the technology to reach 60%, so his mention in a negotiation was interpreted as a warning that Iran was “on the verge” of ending the production of a dozen nuclear weapons.
Witkoff reported this situation to the president and later stated on Fox News that Iranian negotiators “boasted” that Iran had enough enriched uranium to make about eleven nuclear bombs, and that they were proud of it.
This information was processed by the Pentagon and they concluded that Iranians could bring enrichment to arms-grade levels in just a week or ten days. This analysis proved to be fundamental for Trump when he had to make the decision to approve the military attacks that led to the current Operation “Epic Fury
