Almost all of Tehran's uranium enrichment capability destroyed during the war, Witkoff says

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said in an interview broadcast Tuesday night on CNBC that "we have destroyed almost all of [Iran's] enrichment capability during the war," which began on Feb. 28 when Israel and the United States launched attacks against Iran.

"First of all, we have destroyed almost all of their enrichment capability and conversion capability because the enrichment cycle begins with something called conversion and ends with that when you metallicize. All of those activities were occurring at Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow. But here’s what’s so insidious about the Iranian program. They can make almost everything internally that has to do with enrichment. And they have a huge program on manufacturing centrifuges. And they are capable of manufacturing the best-in-class centrifuges, which are called IR-6 centrifuges. The IAEA has said repeatedly – I have talked to Rafael Grossi about this – that it’s very, very difficult to figure out where their centrifuges were. So ... this is the type of regime that we’re dealing with. They’re a very, very rough regime. After [operation] Midnight Hammer, they threw out the IAEA. There’s been no oversight, no observation ... of what they’re doing there from a nuclear standpoint. If everything was as they said it was, just for civil purposes, why would they not allow observers into their country?" he said.

The U.S. envoy continued: "let’s see if the Iranians want to talk. If they do, I’m sure the president would be open to it. But, right now, peace through strength matters. People like the Iranians only understand one thing, a bad alternative if they don’t do as the president has asked them to do."

Steve Witkoff also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin assured Donald Trump, during their phone call on Monday, that Russia had not provided intelligence to Iran.