Iranian minister says Trump official lied about how war began: 'That was not true at all'
The Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister said Wednesday that a Trump administration official did not give the real story about what prompted the war with Iran.
Majid Takht-Ravanchi told MS NOW anchor Ana Cabrera that Iran has continued to defend itself and its civilians after the surprise attack from the United States and Israel started on Saturday. He said that Iran has not received any messages from the United States and that Iran has also not sent any messages following the failed negotiations in February, saying that the Trump administration had not clearly represented what happened during those talks.
President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, had claimed that Iran had enough enriched uranium to develop 11 nuclear bombs — something Takht-Ravanchi argued was not the case, citing what happened during the two instances in Geneva last month.
"No... it is no secret," Takht-Ravanchi said. "This is based on the information which appears in different IAEA atomic energy organization, international atomic energy organization, which says that Iran is in the possession of this amount of 60% material. So this is no secret, but the point is that that amount of 60% enrichment, if it is enriched to a higher degree, that would amount to 10.2 bombs, that did not mean that we were looking for, you know, possessing 10.2 nuclear bombs. We were telling the American delegation that this is the assessment by the European experts, that this amount of 60% enriched uranium can deliver around 10.2 nuclear bombs. But they did not say that we are going to use them. We did not say even that we wanted to enrich that amount to a higher degree."
Takht-Ravanchi claimed that Witkoff had misrepresented what was said during the negotiations.
“In that first meeting, both the Iranian negotiators said to us directly, with no shame, that they controlled 460 kilograms of 60%,” Witkoff had said in the Fox interview. “And they’re aware that that could make 11 nuclear bombs, and that was the beginning of their negotiating stance.”
“They were proud of it,” Witkoff said. “They were proud that they had evaded all sorts of oversight protocols to get to a place where they could deliver 11 nuclear bombs.”
Takht-Ravanchi, along with other diplomats, has suggested that his description of this important conversation was false, MS NOW reported.
"The point that Mr. Witkoff was trying to convey was that Iran was bragging about this nuclear material that is in our possession, and that was the reason that the talks didn't succeed," Takht-Ravanchi said. "That was not true at all."