US Envoy Witkoff: Iran cannot possess a nuclear bomb

Shafaq News/ On Sunday, the US envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, affirmed that Iran cannot be allowed to acquire a nuclear bomb, reiterating US support for Israel against Hamas.

“Our signal to Iran is let’s sit down and see if we can, through dialog, through diplomacy, get to the right place. If we can, we are prepared to do that. And if we can’t, the alternative is not a great alternative,” he told Fox News.

“We don’t need to solve everything militarily.”

However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had earlier dismissed the possibility of direct talks with the United States.

Regarding the war in Gaza, Witkoff blamed Hamas for the renewed fighting in the enclave. “I thought we had an acceptable deal. I even thought we had an approval from Hamas. Maybe that’s just me getting duped. I thought we were there, and evidently we weren’t.”

In presenting his bridge proposal earlier this month, Witkoff acknowledged Israel's reluctance. On March 14, Hamas proposed releasing the last living American hostage and the bodies of four other US citizens, but Witkoff dismissed the offer as a non- starter. Four days later, Israel resumed fighting in Gaza, ending the two-month ceasefire and resulting in the deaths of hundreds, including women and children.

“This is on Hamas. The United States stands with the State of Israel. That’s a 100% commitment,” shared with Fox. “We’ve expressed that Hamas had every opportunity to demilitarize, to accept the bridging proposal that would have given us a 40- or 50-day ceasefire where we could have discussed demilitarization and a final truce. There were all kinds of opportunities to do that, and they chose not to.”