President Donald Trump has sent what might be a final warning to Iran, who continues to resist “good faith” negotiating on its nuclear weapons program it denies it has or ever wanted. He told Iran, “If Iran’s leadership rejects the olive branch and continues to attack their neighbors, then we will have no choice but to inflict massive maximum pressure, the choice is theirs to make.”
Iran Has Agreed ‘They Don’t Want’ Nuclear Weapon– www.breitbart.com
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WASHINGTON — Senior adviser and assistant to the president Steve Witkoff told Breitbart News exclusively that the government of Iran has told him that the Iranians have agreed they do not want a nuclear weapon.
Witkoff, who made the explosive revelation in an exclusive long-form on-camera interview with Breitbart News on Thursday at the White House, is leading negotiations for President Donald Trump with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Witkoff is expected to meet with the Iranians, possibly as soon as this weekend, for a fourth round of talks in Oman, after two previous discussions in Iran and another in Rome. Witkoff will be meeting with them during a broader trip to the Middle East this upcoming week, where President Trump is expected to visit Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. Witkoff is joining Trump for those legs of the trip, but breaking off on his own to meet with the Iranians separately in Oman at the president’s direction.
“We’ve stated our position. The Iranians cannot have a bomb. They have stated back that they don’t want one,” Witkoff told Breitbart News. “So we’re going to, for the purposes of this discussion, take them at their word that that’s actually how they feel. If that’s how they feel, then their enrichment facilities have to be dismantled. They cannot have centrifuges. They have to downblend all of their fuel that they have there and send it to a faraway place—and they have to convert to a civil program if they want to run a civil program. Now, they have a civil reactor actually in the state of Iran—it’s called Bushehr. They have no enrichment capability at this place and if we take them at their word why not just turn all the rest of their facilities just like Bushehr? Bushehr they have no ability to enrich, they have no ability to have centrifuges there, they can only use that facility for civilian purposes—making of electricity and things of that sort of civilian purposes—and if that is what they choose to do, if they believe in that program, they ought to expand it if they want to. An enrichment program can never exist in the state of Iran ever again. That’s our red line. No enrichment. That means dismantlement, it means no weaponization, and it means that Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan—those are their three enrichment facilities—have to be dismantled.”
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Iran has been significantly expanding its covert nuclear weapons development since 2009, it has emerged. New intelligence uncovered by Iranian opposition group NCRI reveals that the regime’s Organisation of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND) is running a secret programme to boost nuclear warhead capability, including mounting them on ballistic missiles able to strike targets over 1,900 miles away. The revelations come as Tehran prepares for a fourth round of proposed nuclear talks with the US in Muscat next week, with experts predicting they may derail negotiations.
At the heart of this effort is the Ivanaki (Eyvanekey) facility, a sprawling 2,500-acre site in Semnan Province, northern Iran. Publicly, it is presented as a paint and chemical production site operated by Diba Energy Sina. In reality, it is used for the construction of nuclear weapon components.
Operational since around 2013, Ivanaki is one of several covert facilities established after Iran’s previous nuclear weapons programme, the Amad Plan, was exposed and halted in 2003.
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The government of Iran adamantly insisted on Sunday that it had no involvement in an escalated terrorism campaign against Israel by the Yemeni Houthi jihadist movement, which announced this weekend it would attempt to blockade Israeli skies entirely.
The post Iran Distances Itself from Embarrassing Houthis as Trump Nuclear Talks Stall appeared first on Breitbart.
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened sanctions on anyone who buys Iranian oil, a warning that came after planned talks over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program were postponed.
Trump wrote on social media, “All purchases of Iranian Oil, or Petrochemical products, must stop, NOW!” He said any country or person who buys those products from Iran will not be able to do business with the United States “in any way, shape, or form.”
It was unclear how Trump would implement such a ban as he threatened to levy secondary sanctions on nations that import Iranian oil. But his statement risked further escalating tensions with China — Iran’s leading customer — at a time when the relationship is severely strained over the U.S. president’s tariffs.
Based on tanker tracking data, the U.S. Energy Information Administration concluded in a report published last October that “China took nearly 90% of Iran’s crude oil and condensate exports in 2023.” Trump has separately placed 145% tariffs on China as a way to raise federal revenues and rebalance global trade.
operations in years– www.cbsnews.com
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London — British counterterrorism police officers arrested four Iranian men over an alleged plot to attack an unspecified target, and three others over an undefined national security threat, London’s Metropolitan Police said Sunday. The government called the operations the biggest “counter-state threat and counterterrorism” in years.
The Met, as London’s police force is often known, said five men between the ages of 29 and 46 were detained Saturday in various parts of England under the Terrorism Act on suspicion of preparing “a terrorist act.”
Four are Iranian citizens and the nationality of the fifth was still being established. Police said the attack plot was targeting a single location that was not being named “for operational reasons.” They said people at the premises in question were being given “advice and support.”
Netanyahu vows to retaliate against Houthis and Iran after missile attack | World News– news.sky.com
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” after the group launched a missile attack on the country’s main international airport.
A missile fired by the group from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion Airport, causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
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Some of the reports coming out of the U.S-Iran nuke talks are extremely disappointing. President Trump seems to have a cabal of Iran appeasers and Israel-haters in his national security team. There is a concern that they could convince President Trump to accept a substandard deal with Iran. Rubio, Waltz, Huckabee, and other sensible Trump Admin officials are going to have to fight the Iran appeasers, and make sure that only a strong deal is signed with Iran. A deal in which Iran’s nuclear program is completely dismantled.
Related – Trump team’s Iran divide: Dialogue vs. detonation to end nuclear threat
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Maximum pressure is getting less and less maximum and less and less pressure. https://t.co/4uqVyZ8MjU
— Mark Dubowitz (@mdubowitz) April 20, 2025
ICYMI:
Iran is ‘summarily rejecting any thought of dismantling’ nuclear program themselves: Jack Keane | https://t.co/Dhxh1GNMmE— Jack Keane (@gen_jackkeane) April 15, 2025
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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is set to travel to Moscow later this week, according to Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei, who made the announcement during his regular press briefing on April 14.
Baghaei noted that Araghchi’s trip had been planned in advance and said the minister would use the opportunity to hold consultations with Russian officials about the ongoing negotiations with the United States, Caliber.Az reports, citing Iranian media.
“Araghchi will make a pre-scheduled visit to Moscow this week, during which he will discuss the latest developments in the Muscat talks,” Baghaei stated.
On April 12, Iranian and American delegations held an initial round of indirect talks in Oman, with Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi serving as the mediator. In line with Iran’s request, the negotiations were not conducted face-to-face, but through the Omani mediator. Each delegation remained in separate rooms, with messages being passed back and forth.
Imprisonment of Christians Jumps Six-Fold in Iran as Persecution Intensifies – Center for Human Rights in Iran
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