US envoy says Iran misjudged Trump team in nuclear negotiations

Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy for Middle East negotiations, said on Monday Iran attempted to strong-arm the American delegation during recent nuclear talks, underestimating President Trump’s team.

“It was pretty silly, but they thought they could strong-arm us. You know, President Trump sent me and Jared there to really determine on his behalf whether they were serious about doing a deal that addressed his objectives, which are: elimination of their missile program; elimination of their advocacy and support for proxies, which is destabilizing the entire Middle East; elimination of their navy so we can have freedom of the seas and not be threatened with the shutdown of the Gulf of Hormuz; and finally, no nuclear enrichment that can get them to weapons grade, which means no nuclear bomb," Witkoff said.

"We went in there and tried to make a fair deal with them. 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. Of course, they thought they wanted us to report positivity. It was not a positive meeting," he added.