Iran could be ‘a week away’ from enriching uranium to weapons grade — US envoy
Iran's foreign minister says that, as a sovereign country, Iran has every right “to decide for ourselves, by ourselves.”
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff claimed Saturday that Iran could be about "a week away" from producing industrial-grade bomb-making material, calling the situation “very dangerous” and reiterating Washington’s red lines in ongoing nuclear talks.
Speaking to Fox News, Witkoff said Iran has enriched uranium up to 60 percent, which he argued exceeds levels needed for civilian nuclear purposes.
“They’re probably a week away from having industrial-grade bomb-making material,” Witkoff claimed. “That’s really dangerous. So they can’t have that.”
He said before talks with Iran, Trump instructed him and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and unofficial aide, that there would be “zero enrichment” and that the US would seek the return of nuclear material.
Witkoff said the US position is that Iran must not enrich uranium and must hand over its stockpiled material. “There have been some very hard red lines drawn,” he said.
‘Good chance’
Iran's foreign minister said on Sunday that he thought there was still a "good chance" his country's standoff with the United States over its nuclear programme could be resolved through diplomacy.
"I believe that still there is a good chance to have a diplomatic solution which is based on a win-win game," Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told the US broadcaster CBS, adding negotiators were "working on the elements of a deal and draft of the text".
As for Iran's uranium enrichment, which the US opposes, Araghchi said: "As a sovereign country, we have every right to decide for ourselves, by ourselves."