Steve Witkoff’s revelations about his discussions with Iran and their bold claims concerning their nuclear ambitions have seemingly gone unnoticed by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.
In the midst of an ongoing U.S.-Israel collaborative effort to counter Iran, Rafael Grossi, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), took to X to assert, “There is no evidence that Iran is constructing a nuclear bomb.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the IAEA, questioning how the agency could evaluate Iran’s potential nuclear weapon developments without having access to their facilities. However, no comment was received before the deadline.
Grossi’s comments followed Steve Witkoff’s appearance on Fox News with Sean Hannity, where he detailed his discussions with the Iranian regime prior to the military actions taken by the U.S. and Israel against Tehran.
During these talks, Iranian negotiators asserted their “inalienable right” to enrich uranium. In response, Witkoff recalled telling them that the Trump administration also had the “inalienable right to stop [them].” He described this as merely the starting point for the negotiations.
Witkoff further elaborated, stating, “Iran possesses approximately 10,000 kilograms of fissionable material, including about 460 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% and an additional 1,000 kilograms enriched to 20%.” He noted, “They are capable of producing their own centrifuges to further enrich this material, making it nearly impossible to halt their progress. The 60% enriched uranium can be upgraded to 90%—weapons-grade level—in roughly a week, possibly 10 days at most. Meanwhile, the 20% enriched material can reach weapons-grade within three to four weeks.”
Witkoff added that during his first meeting with the negotiators, they said “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 this negotiating stance.”
“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,” Witkoff said.
US special Envoy Steve Witkoff arrives to his hotel during new round of talks between the United States and Iran on Iran’s nuclear programme, in Geneva on Feb. 26, 2026. ( Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Image)
Grossi, who is running to become the next United Nations secretary general, did however admit in his post on X that Iran maintains “a large stockpile of near-weapons grade enriched uranium” and said that the Islamic Republic has not allowed inspectors full access to its program. With these facts in mind, he said that the IAEA “will not be in a position to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful” until Iran “assists…in resolving the outstanding safeguards issues.”
Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, FDD, told Fox News Digital, “No one paid much attention to Rafael Grossi throughout the Biden years when he repeatedly warned publicly that Iran was refusing to cooperate with and providing false statements to the IAEA about ongoing investigations into undeclared facilities, activities and nuclear material.”
The former Trump administration official said, “There are some key facts being ignored today. The IAEA board last year found Iran to be in breach of the NPT. To this day, Grossi has confirmed that the IAEA cannot verify the Iranian nuclear program is peaceful.”
He continued, “This is not Iraq where we lacked hard public evidence of a nuclear weapons program. Iran had built out nearly every part of its nuclear weapons program in plain sight, with the weaponization work moving forward at undeclared sites controlled by SPND. If the administration had evidence the regime was moving quickly to reconstitute key elements of that program — from advanced centrifuge manufacturing to completion of a new underground enrichment site alongside advancement of delivery vehicle programs – the president was fully justified in enforcing a red line he set after Operation Midnight Hammer.”
Map of Iran nuclear facilities attacked by the US in Operation Midnight Hammer. (Fox News)
Spencer Faragasso, a senior fellow at the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), told Fox News Digital that his organization calculated prior to the June 2025 12 Day War that Iran possessed 440.9 kilograms of 60% rich uranium. With about 24 or 25 kilograms of 90% rich uranium required per weapon, Faragasso said the country possessed the ability to produce 11 weapons in one month.
Faragasso said that there remain questions about whether the Iranians can access their enriched materials, and whether they possess additional centrifuges that may have not been installed in the facilities that were struck.
“Being able to enrich the uranium up to weapon grade is actually a tall order,” he said, explaining that it would require a new enrichment site and components and materials that “Iran would either need to recover from its destroyed facilities” or “illicitly import them from abroad.” With a few hundred centrifuges, enough for two or three cascades, Faragasso said the Iranians could have enriched their uranium stores to weapon grade.
“To be clear, the successes gained from the June war are not permanent and officials from the regime spoke publicly about how they wanted to reconstitute their enrichment program, their nuclear program,” he said. “The more time that goes on, the worse the situation will get. It’s not going to get better, especially regarding the ballistic missile program.”
Satellite imagery taken on Jan. 30, 2026, shows a new roof over a previously destroyed building at Natanz nuclear site. (2026 PLANET LABS PBC/Handout via REUTERS)
He said the Iranians had previously expressed the desire to open a fourth enrichment site, which the IAEA stated was at Esfahan. According to Faragasso, there was “never confirmation” of where the site was or how far along construction may have been.
The group is now tracking an Israeli strike on March 3 on Min-Zadayi, a site that Faragasso said “was completely unknown” to them previously. The Israel Defense Forces reported on X that the site was “used by a group of nuclear scientists who operated to develop a key component for nuclear weapons.”
The State Department referred Fox News Digital to remarks made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to the press on Tuesday on Iran’s nuclear program.
“This terroristic, radical, cleric-led regime cannot be ever allowed to have nuclear weapons.” Explaining that the Islamic Republic was “willing to slaughter their own people in the streets,” Rubio directed members of the press to “imagine what they would do to us. Imagine what they would do to others. Under President Trump that will never, ever happen,” he said.
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