Khamenei’s Son is New Supreme Leader; Iran has Uranium for 11 Bombs

M.A. Dworkin

Middle East - In talks leading up to the outbreak of the Iran-Israel-U.S. war, Iranian negotiators openly admitted that they possessed enough 460kg of 60% enriched uranium to build nuclear weapons within two to three years. 

Trump Administration special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner said the Iranians boasted at the start of negotiations that their stockpile could be quickly enriched to 90% in order to make nuclear bombs. 

“The Iranians were proud that they had evaded all oversight protocols to achieve this end,” said Mr. Witkoff. “As Iran manufactures its own centrifuges to enrich the material, there is almost no way to stop them, and they would have an endless supply to produce nuclear bombs,” he added.

A further angle of threat is that 60% enriched uranium can be further enriched to 90% weapons grade in roughly one week, 10 days at the latest,” said Mr. Witkoff. 

The Iranians told Witkoff and Kushner at the start of the negotiations that Iran has an inalienable right to enrich all the nuclear fuel that they possess. In return, the US envoys replied that President Trump believes he has the inalienable right to stop Iran dead in its tracks.

“We went in there and tried to make a fair deal, and it was very clear it was going to be impossible, probably by the end of the second meeting,” Witkoff said. “We went back for a third meeting to give it another try, but that meeting was not positive.”

President Trump has admitted that he might have forced Israel’s hand to strike Iran first, saying his opinion was the Islamic Republic was going to launch a military strike first.

“Based on the way the negotiations were going, it was my opinion that they were going to attack first,” Trump told reporters that he formed his opinion based on the course of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. “If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand,” Trump gave the go-ahead for the strikes against Iran hours after the latest round of talks concluded in Geneva.

His remarks are in contrast to Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s claim that Israel was the one that decided to attack Iran first and that dictated Trump’s decision. Mr. Rubio said the U.S. made the decision to join the strikes alongside Israel rather than join the fight later after likely Iranian retaliatory strikes.

After four days of strikes by Israel and the U.S., President Trump said Iran’s military has been “knocked out.”

“They have no navy. It’s been knocked out. They have no air force, that’s been knocked out. They have no air detection, that’s been knocked out,” Trump claimed. “Their radar has been knocked out. Just about everything’s been knocked out.”

The U.S. President delivered the assessment of the war, which he described as “coming along very well,” during a press conference with visiting German Chancellor Fredrich Merz in the Oval Office on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.

In the meantime, informed sources claim Iran’s Assembly of Experts elected Ali Khamenei’s eldest son, Mojtaba, as the next Supreme Leader under pressure from the Iranian  Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a powerful and influential multi-service, national security, branch of the Iranian Armed Forces. The IRGC is responsible for internal and border security, law enforcement, and also Iran’s missile forces.