The Times of Israel:

By JACOB MAGID and TOI STAFF

US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, who is set to resume nuclear talks with Iran on Sunday, has said the Islamic Republic’s uranium enrichment facilities “have to be dismantled” for Washington to take it at its word that it does not want nuclear arms.

“They cannot have centrifuges. They have to downblend all of their fuel that they have there and send it to a far-away place,” Witkoff said in an interview with right-wing US news outlet Breitbart on Thursday. “An enrichment program can never exist in the state of Iran ever again. That’s our red line.”

“I just believe they have no choice” but to accept the position of US President Donald Trump against enrichment, said Witkoff. “Obviously, they can say no, and they can test President Trump, but I think that would be an unwise thing to do.”

The comments came after Witkoff last month said the US would seek only to cap Iran’s uranium enrichment, but not end it altogether, contrary to the position of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Witkoff quickly backtracked, saying any nuclear deal with Iran “must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program.”

Speaking to Breitbart, Witkoff said Iran would have to dismantle its three known enrichment facilities in Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan. On the other hand, he said, the Iranians could hold onto their nuclear reactor in Bushehr, where “they have no ability to enrich, they have no ability to have centrifuges there, they can only use that facility for civilian purposes — making electricity and things of that sort of civilian purposes.

Go to link