Witkoff: Iran must dismantle uranium enrichment facilities, ship material ‘far away’

US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, who is set to resume nuclear talks with Iran on Sunday, has said the Islamic Republic’s uranium enrichment facilities “have to be dismantled” for Washington to take it at its word that it does not want nuclear arms.

“They cannot have centrifuges. They have to downblend all of their fuel that they have there and send it to a far-away place,” Witkoff said in an interview with right-wing US news outlet Breitbart on Thursday. “An enrichment program can never exist in the state of Iran ever again. That’s our red line.”

“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 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.”

Witkoff 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.

The truce did not include a commitment by the Yemeni rebels to stop attacking Israel, and apparently caught Jerusalem by surprise — much like Trump’s announcement of the Iran nuclear talks last month.

Trump, in his first term, scrapped the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, dubbed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which had promised Iran sanctions relief in exchange for greater oversight over its nuclear program. Netanyahu had railed against that deal, arguing that it kept in place Iran’s capacity to produce nuclear arms.

Witkoff told Breitbart that “we’re never doing a JCPOA deal,” saying the agreement had a “mismatched procedure.”

“We believe that they cannot have enrichment, they cannot have centrifuges, they cannot have anything that allows them to build a weapon. We believe in all of that. That was not JCPOA,” said Witkoff.

“JCPOA had sunset provisions that burned off the obligations and burned off the sanctions relief at inappropriate times. It’s never going to happen in this deal,” he said.

Witkoff stressed that Trump, who is expected to visit the Middle East next week, prefers a diplomatic rather than military solution to the Iranian nuclear threat.

Witkoff said critics of his diplomacy included a “neocon element” that “believes war is the only way to solve things.”

“Neocon,” or neo-conservative, refers in US political parlance to politicians who support intervention in foreign conflicts. The term is often used derisively by Trump’s isolationist supporters.

Witkoff’s comment came after Trump last week fired US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, in part, reportedly, over the latter’s hawkish views on Iran and intense coordination with Netanyahu on a potential military strike there.

Witkoff said his neo-conservative critics “give no consideration whatsoever on what the consequences are” for military action, and are certain that Iran will manipulate Witkoff if it is not handled with force.

“They may attempt to manipulate me. I don’t think they’re going to be able to manipulate me,” said Witkoff. “If the Iranians make the mistake of thinking they can procrastinate at the table, then they won’t see that much of me.

“The alternative, as the president says, will be a bad alternative for them,” he said. Trump “believes that his force of personality… can bend people to do things in a better way in the interests of the United States government,” said Witkoff, adding: “I believe in that too.”

Araghchi to consult with Saudi counterparts

Araghchi, Witkoff’s interlocutor in the nuclear talks, is set to visit Saudi Arabia and Qatar on Saturday, a day before the fourth round of negotiations and days before Trump is expected to visit those countries, Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement Friday.

Araghchi is due to hold talks with senior Saudi officials in Riyadh before heading to Doha for a conference on Arab-Iranian dialogue, the ministry said. The Iranian top diplomat later said meetings in Saudi Arabia would cover the latest on the nuclear talks with Washington.

In a video carried by Iranian media, Araghchi said Tehran believes “the sustainability of any possible agreement depends to a large extent on taking into account the considerations and concerns of the countries of the region in the nuclear field,” and those countries’ common interests with Iran.

Trump is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates from May 13 to 16 on his first major Middle East trip of his second term. The president is not expected to visit Israel on the trip.

Trump provoked Araghchi’s ire earlier this week by indicating that the US would decide how to call the Persian Gulf, following reports that Washington could officially rename it the Gulf of Arabia. Araghchi condemned the decision as showing “hostile intent toward Iran and its people.”

Ahead of the trip, Trump had predicted that Saudi-Israel normalization would happen “very quickly.” However, sources cited by Reuters this week said Trump had dropped the demand that Saudi Arabia normalize relations with Israel as a condition for progress on a civil nuclear program.

Agencies contributed to this report.