During an interview on Wednesday’s Ana Cabrera Reports, the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister confirmed key details of a Special Envoy Steve Witkoff’s interview on FOX News where he stated the Iranians claimed to have enough material for eleven nuclear bombs, a statement that MS NOW rushed to report was false based on an “anonymous Gulf diplomat.”
On Monday, Witkoff said “the Iranian negotiators said to us, directly, with, you know, no shame that they controlled 460 kilograms of 60 percent, and they’re aware that that could make 11 nuclear bombs and that was the beginning of their negotiating stance.”
MS NOW’s senior national security reporter David Rohde reported last night that Witkoff’s claims were false and went on Morning Joe the next morning to parrot the anonymous diplomat’s claims:
Witkoff claimed that the Iranians bragged that they had enough enriched uranium for 11 nuclear bombs. It was a Sean Hannity interview. People who were present during the negotiations said that never happened, that the Iranians never made that statement. And in fact, they said, we have enriched uranium because we started enriching uranium again after President Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal that President Obama negotiated. So it’s a continuation of a – the administration is struggling to explain why they had to do this now.
Watch as MS NOW Senior National Security Reporter, David Rohde, has his story on Witkoff’s “undermining” of negotiations disproven after an interview with an Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister on his own network: pic.twitter.com/Vi22onVlKj
— Nick (@nspin310) March 4, 2026
But, just less than two hours later, the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, basically confirmed the details of Witkoff’s Hannity interview, disproving a main part of MS NOW’s online story, after a Question from Cabrera:
(…) I want you to please bring Mr. Witkoff to your show and the things that I’m sharing with you, just share these things with him and then try to ask him to comment on this. When the question of plus 400 kilograms of 60 percent material was raised in the meeting, we were not reacting. We were just stating a fact.
And in fact, the amount of nuclear bombs corresponding to those 400-something kilograms is an estimate by European specialists. They are telling us that this is ten-point-two (10.2), you know, bombs. So, we are not bragging. We were just saying that this is the results of our scientific achievements. But we are ready to, you know, send this – I mean, to get rid of this, provided that we have – we will get something good in return. So he was unfortunately, Mr. Witkoff, is misrepresenting the fact and it was not the case at all. And by the way, Iran was not a party to renege on its promise. (…)
“It sounds like you just confirmed those details, though, that we heard from Steve Witkoff about the amount and percentage of the enriched uranium,” Cabrera said, realizing the their discrepancy. “So, to clarify, and just to really drill down on this, does Iran have enough enriched uranium for 11 nuclear bombs?”
Takht-Ravanchi then went on to say this was just IAEA statistics, but he still proved key details of Witkoff’s comments.
Funny enough, Rohde was the next guest immediately following the deputy minister to respond to the interview, with Cabrera seemingly unaware of Rohde’s report:
ROHDE: I wrote a story on Witkoff’s claim that they were sort of bragging about it. I was told that they had it, they said, because that had enriched that once president trump had pulled out of the nuclear agreement that was agreed to by President Obama. But I have to be honest, this regime hasn’t always been clear or truthful about its enrichment efforts.
CABRERA: He did seem to confirm, though, the details –
ROHDE: Yes.
CABRERA: – of what we heard from Witkoff, which stood out to me. (…)
Somehow, later in the day, Rohde went on Katy Tur Reports and shared his false report while referencing the interview that proved him false. In reference to his same report, Rohde said, “And it struck me, so I went back to sources who know about what happened in the negotiations, and they just said, flat out, that never happened.”
Maybe one should not take information from an anonymous gulf diplomat, with clear biases, to report on falsehoods of negotiations with a country that was notorious for lying under the faltering Islamic regime.
The transcript is below. Click “expand”:
MS NOW’s Morning Joe
March 4, 2026
8:40:34 AM Eastern
DAVID ROHDE: I had the same questions about no real explanation about why this had to happen now. He brought up something that we’ve actually done some reporting on. It’s basically claims that Iran was actively pursuing a nuclear weapon, and this is something Steve Witkoff talked about in a Fox News interview a couple nights ago, and we contacted people with knowledge of the negotiations.
Witkoff claimed that the Iranians bragged that they had enough enriched uranium for 11 nuclear bombs. It was a Sean Hannity interview. People who were present during the negotiations said that never happened, that the Iranians never made that statement. And in fact, they said, we have enriched uranium because we started enriching uranium again after President Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal that President Obama negotiated. So it’s a continuation of a – the administration is struggling to explain why they had to do this now.
And in terms of the objectives, you know, I was struck like you. It’s just very unusual, we talked about exquisite, you know, standoff munitions. At one point he compared it to a football game and at the end he was sort of talking about, you know, pushing the throttle up. Waging war is one of the most serious things the American government can do. Six Americans have lost their lives already. And so it’s – he seems enamored with the ability of air power alone and these bombs to break the will of Iranian forces and maybe they will, and this is a terrible regime, and maybe they will be toppled. But I’m still concerned about the strategy the administration has here. And I still think that the objective is unclear.
(…)
MS NOW’s Ana Cabrera Reports
March 4, 2026
10:22:18 AM Eastern
ANA CABRERA: The White House also says the negotiations ahead of this war were doomed to fail, because your country was acting in bad faith. I want to play for you what U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff said this week about these negotiations. Take a listen.
[Cuts to video]
U.S. ENVOY STEVE WITKOFF: Let me say this because I forgot this small little detail. In that first meeting, both the Iranian negotiators said to us, directly, with, you know, no shame that they controlled 460 kilograms of 60 percent, and they’re aware that that could make 11 nuclear bombs and that was the beginning of their negotiating stance. So that’s – 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.
{Cuts back to live]
ANA CABRERA: Minister, is that true?
IRAN DEP. FOREIGN MINISTER MAJID TAKHT-RAVANCHI: Not at all. I want you to please bring Mr. Witkoff to your show and the things that I’m sharing with you, just share these things with him and then try to ask him to comment on this. When the question of plus 400 kilograms of 60 percent material was raised in the meeting, we were not reacting. We were just stating a fact.
And in fact, the amount of nuclear bombs corresponding to those 400-something kilograms is an estimate by European specialists. They are telling us that this is 10.2, you know, bombs. So, we are not bragging. We were just saying that this is the results of our scientific achievements. But we are ready to, you know, send this – I mean, to get rid of this, provided that we have – we will get something good in return. So he was unfortunately, Mr. Witkoff, is misrepresenting the fact and it was not the case at all. And by the way, Iran was not a party to renege on its promise.
During the last meeting that we had in Geneva. At the end of the meeting, all sides, including the Americans, and Iran, and the mediators, the foreign minister of Oman, all of us agreed that we had a good meeting. We had progress. And in fact, we agreed to send a technical teams – technical team to Vienna. And by the end of the week, we agreed to meet in principle.
So what happened from Thursday night, when we injured adjourned the meeting, till Saturday morning, when we are faced with an act of aggression. Mr. Witkoff has to come to your show and tell the audience why they have changed their mind. Why they were satisfied with the results of negotiations in Geneva, and then in less than 48 hours, they changed course and resorted to violence and acts of aggression.
CABRERA: It sounds like you just confirmed those details, though, that we heard from Steve Witkoff about the amount and percentage of the enriched uranium. So, to clarify, and just to really drill down on this, does Iran have enough enriched uranium for 11 nuclear bombs?
TAKHT-RAVANCHI: No, we have – it is not – it is no secret. 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 percent material, so this is no secret. But the point is that that amount of 60 percent 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 enriched 60 percent 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. 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. That was not true at all.
(…)
10:32:08 AM Eastern
CABRERA: I want to bring in MS NOW’s senior national security reporter, David Rohde. And, David, as you were listening, what was going through your mind? What are your top takeaways?
DAVID ROHDE: The war will continue. I didn’t hear much flexibility in what he said. You know, he was evasive on the answer about why they’re still cutting off communications to the population. And he was sort of – he didn’t explain very well why they had all that enriched uranium. I wrote a story on Witkoff’s claim that they were sort of bragging about it. I was told that they had it, they said, because that had enriched that once President Trump had pulled out of the nuclear agreement that was agreed to by President Obama. But I have to be honest, this regime hasn’t always been clear or truthful about its enrichment efforts.
CABRERA: He did seem to confirm, though, the details –
ROHDE: Yes.
CABRERA: – of what we heard from Witkoff, which stood out to me. He also said that they have had no communication either direction with the U.S. since the beginning of this war.
ROHDE: Yeah, that’s what – that’s ,of all the points, that’s the one that sort of is the most disappointing. There’s no backchannel. There was a report in The New York Times that the Iranians had reached out through a third country spy service to try to start a dialog, that was just on the first day of the – of this attack. So, it’s just a grim situation because it just seems like he was sticking to his talking points and not really making any gestures to, to start more of a dialog.
(…)
MS NOW’s Katy Tur Reports
March 4. 2026
2:07:25 PM
KATY TUR: Give me your reporting about the negotiations, because the administration keeps saying that the reason they had to do this is because the Iranians were lying to them in negotiations and being stubborn about their nuclear program.
ROHDE: So, it started with an interview that Steve Witkoff gave on Fox News on Monday night. And he said on live TV that when they had their first meeting with the Iranians, the Iranians bragged about all the enriched uranium that they had and that they had so much enriched uranium that they could make ten nuclear bombs. And it struck me, so I went back to sources who know about what happened in the negotiations, and they just said, flat out, that never happened. The Iranians never happened.
And then we actually had earlier today on MS NOW, the deputy foreign minister of Iran, and he confirmed what I was also told was that the Iranians have this enriched uranium, and they were willing to hand it over as part of the deal. That that’s what they said to Witkoff. So, it’s just, again, back to what led them to carry out these strikes now. Why was there such a rush? And then what’s the objective? It’s all still unclear.
