Witkoff: Iranian negotiators boasted they could build 11 nuclear bombs

US President Donald Trump's Special Envoy Steve Witkoff has said that Iranian representatives boasted during negotiations that they could produce 11 nuclear bombs.

"In that first meeting, both the Iranian negotiators said to us directly with no shame that they controlled 460 kilograms of 60% [enriched uranium], and they're aware that that could make 11 nuclear bombs, and that was the beginning of their negotiating stance," Witkoff said on Fox News.

Witkoff noted that the Iranian side were proud of having avoided all forms of monitoring protocols in order to reach that point.

"They manufacture their own centrifuges to enrich this material, so there's almost no stopping them. They have an endless supply of it," he added.

Before the US and Israel launched their military operation against Iran on 28 February, Washington and Tehran had held several rounds of talks in an attempt to reach an agreement on Iran's nuclear programme. The US sought a 10-year halt to uranium enrichment.

Some sources cited by Axios suggested that the negotiations may have been used to divert Iran's attention from a US military build-up in the region. Other sources said the talks were genuine but ultimately failed.

Germany, France and the UK called on Iran to seek a way out of the crisis at the negotiating table after hostilities escalated in the Middle East.