President Donald Trump boasted of the United States’s stockpile of weapons while warning that Iran would “never” be allowed to enrich uranium, a major sticking point in negotiations.
Iranian nuclear negotiations appear to be losing momentum, with a senior Iranian official on the negotiating team telling Reuters that Tehran is poised to reject the latest U.S. offer. Trump vented his frustrations in a post on Truth Social, blaming former President Joe Biden’s administration for the conundrum and contradicting reports that the U.S. would allow limited uranium enrichment.
“The AUTOPEN should have stopped Iran a long time ago from ‘enriching.’ Under our potential Agreement — WE WILL NOT ALLOW ANY ENRICHMENT OF URANIUM!” he wrote.
He followed that post six minutes later with another about the U.S.’s military power:
“Just had a great talk with our Military Leaders. It is the strongest Military we have ever had, including the fact that we are stockpiling weapons at a rate never seen before by our Country. Hopefully, however, we will never have to use them!”
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff reportedly gave a new proposal to Tehran on Saturday, outlining “preliminary ideas” to be discussed at the sixth round of nuclear talks in the coming days, according to Axios. It allegedly contained details that contradict the public statements of Trump administration officials. Contrary to Trump and his administration’s insistence, the deal allegedly allows limited low-level uranium enrichment within Iran.
Iran would halt new research and development of new centrifuges and “dismantle critical infrastructure for conversion and processing of uranium.”
US SUBMITS NUCLEAR DEAL PROPOSAL AFTER IRAN INCREASES URANIUM ENRICHMENT
“President Trump has made it clear that Iran can never obtain a nuclear bomb. Special Envoy Witkoff has sent a detailed and acceptable proposal to the Iranian regime, and it’s in their best interest to accept it. Out of respect for the ongoing deal, the Administration will not comment on details of the proposal to the media,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Axios in a statement.
Trump has balanced negotiations with saber-rattling, threatening Iran with military action if a deal couldn’t be reached. Despite this, he has clashed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his push for military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Israel has readied a strike force to hit Iranian targets swiftly if talks fall through.
