US envoy says Iran misjudged Trump team in nuclear negotiations

The United States’ special envoy for Middle East negotiations, Steve Witkoff, said Iran opened recent nuclear talks by asserting an “inalienable right” to enrich all of its nuclear fuel, a stance that surprised the US delegation and underscored the difficulty of reaching a deal.

"We discussed with them 10 years of no enrichment whatsoever, and we would pay for the fuel, and it was flatly rejected, and the President seemed to have a good faith negotiation," Witkoff said. "And they rejected that, which told us at that very moment that they had no notion of doing anything other than retaining enrichment for the purpose of weaponizing."

"They have 10,000 roughly kilograms of fissionable material that's broken up into roughly 460 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium, another 1000 kilograms of 20% enriched uranium, and the balance is at 3.67 they manufacture their own centrifuges to enrich this material. So there's almost no stopping them," Witkoff added.

"And let me say this because I forgot this small little detail in that first meeting the both the Iranian negotiators said to us directly with you know with no shame that they controlled 460 kilograms of 60% and they're aware that that could make 11 nuclear bombs. And that was the beginning of their negotiating stance. So that's, that's they were. They were proud of it. They were proud that they had evaded all sorts of oversight protocols to get to a place where they could deliver 11 nuclear bombs," he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Fox News on Monday that Iran is the only country in the world that openly seeks the destruction of the United States, adding that Tehran works tirelessly to achieve that goal.

"This is a regime committed to destroying the United States of America. It's the only country on the planet that says so openly and works tirelessly to achieve that goal," Netanyahu said.

"They're totally fanatic about this, about the goal of destroying America. So they started building new sites, new places, underground bunkers that would make their ballistic missile program and their atomic bomb program immune within months if no action was taken now, no action could be taken in the future, and then they could target America, they could blackmail America, they could threaten us and threaten everyone in between," he added.

"So action had to be taken, and you needed a resolute President like Donald J Trump to take that action. And we are his very strong and able partners, and our alliance today is so strong we had to take the action now, and we did otherwise, the Iranian mass murder regime would have immunity from future action," Netanyahu said.

"He (Trump) said to me, right off the bat, I didn't say to him, he said to me, we have to make sure they never get the nukes. And that's what he did. We tried first to take them out in midnight hammer and rising line operation, and we took out their missile sites, but then they started again. their missile and nuclear sites, they didn't learn the lesson he tried to get negotiations he negotiated with them they didn't get it. They tried to string them along. So action had to be taken, and we took it," he added.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said on Monday Iran’s UN ambassador may soon seek asylum, characterizing Tehran’s decades‑long hostility and saying President Trump’s response represents a decisive break with what he described as an “endless” conflict.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s asking for asylum soon — representing a regime that has terrorized the region and massacred tens of thousands of their own people," Waltz told Fox.

Waltz argued the struggle with Iran has spanned decades - a 47‑year conflict stemming from Tehran’s antagonism toward the United States - and that current operations reflect a commitment to end that cycle of hostility.

“It’s been a 47‑year endless war, started with President Carter… and President Trump is taking the bold action to end it," he added.

President Trump said on Monday the US retaliation for the attack on its Riyadh embassy and killed service members will be revealed soon, adding he does not think boots on the ground will be necessary.

“You’ll find soon what the retaliation will be for the attack on the US embassy in Riyadh and for the US service members killed,” News Nation correspondent Kellie Meyer posted on X. “He also told me he doesn’t think boots on the ground will be necessary.”

Vice President JD Vance on Monday defended President Trump’s launch of Operation Epic Fury and the joint US–Israel campaign targeting Iran’s regime, saying the president acted to ensure Tehran could never develop a nuclear weapon.

“What President determined is he didn’t want to just keep the country safe from an Iranian nuclear weapon for the first 3, 4 years of his second term. He wanted to make sure that Iran could never have a nuclear weapon... he saw that the Iranian regime was weakened," Vane told Fox. "He knew that they were committed to getting on that brink of a nuclear weapon, and he decided to take action because he felt that was necessary in order to protect the nation’s security.”