The United States and Iran are reportedly in early-stage discussions to revive negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program, according to US special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Speaking to Fox News, Witkoff described the talks as “promising,” adding, “We’re hopeful. Now it’s time to sit down with the Iranians and get to a comprehensive peace deal.”
These discussions come in the wake of a sudden and violent escalation. A planned round of US-Iran nuclear talks set for June 15 was derailed after Israeli airstrikes hit Iranian territory just two days prior, triggering a regional war.
The US responded with a wave of bombings on three of Iran’s key nuclear facilities. Days later, President Donald Trump announced a surprise ceasefire, which has largely held despite scattered reports of early violations.
Witkoff confirmed that the US and Iran are currently communicating both directly and through intermediaries in an effort to resume stalled negotiations. The timing, he noted, is sensitive — coming shortly after some of the most aggressive military exchanges between Washington, Tel Aviv, and Tehran in recent years, dw.com reports.
Meanwhile, an initial US intelligence assessment — reported by Reuters and CNN — concluded that the strikes only delayed Iran’s nuclear program by a few months. According to three unnamed sources, Iran could be in a position to resume progress on its nuclear infrastructure relatively quickly. This stands in contrast to President Trump’s public claims that the program had been “fully obliterated.”
In response to the reports, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the assessment as “flat-out wrong,” stating: “Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.”
Trump echoed that sentiment in a defiant post on Truth Social, labeling CNN’s reporting as “fake news” and calling the mission “one of the most successful military strikes in history.” He maintained that the Iranian nuclear sites are now “completely destroyed.”
The US military reportedly used both conventional and bunker-busting munitions in its strikes, targeting heavily fortified sites including the Fordo underground facility — long considered among Iran’s most secure nuclear locations.
Despite these assertions, the full extent of the damage remains unclear. Intelligence officials are still evaluating the effectiveness of the strikes and the likelihood of Iran reconstituting its nuclear capabilities.
As regional tensions simmer under a tenuous ceasefire, the world watches closely to see whether Washington and Tehran can return to the negotiating table — and whether diplomacy can gain ground where destruction has so far dominated.
