Saturday’s talks in Rome between the Trump administration and the Islamic Republic of Iran related to the rogue regime’s failure to dismantle its illicit nuclear weapons program have sparked concerns about Tehran’s commitment to a potential new agreement.
During an appearance on “The Story with Martha MacCallum,” retired Gen. Jack Keane, a Fox News senior strategic analyst, characterized Iran’s approach as a reiteration of the tactics used to secure the JCPOA during the Obama administration, labeling its strategy as a “bold-faced lie” that resulted in the “disastrous 2015” deal.
Keane stated that Iran is recycling the false claim that it will decrease highly enriched uranium levels to a non-threatening percentage for nuclear weapons, instead intending to utilize it for civilian nuclear energy purposes. Keane also commented on the Iranian belief that the Trump administration might be receptive to this narrative, given Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement in 2018.
In 2018, President Trump withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the formal name for the 2015 nuclear deal brokered by the Obama administration, because, he argued, it failed to stop Iran’s ambitions to construct an atomic bomb.
senior fellow at JINSA, said during a briefing about Iran’s nuclear weapons program Thursday.
Hannah served in senior advisory roles with former Vice President Dick Cheney and was intimately involved in developing U.S. strategy toward talks with Iran over Afghanistan, Iraq and the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program throughout President George W. Bush’s two terms in the White House.
Traditionally, military pressure has influenced the Islamic Republic of Iran’s recalcitrant and anti-American leaders to make concessions. The U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 reportedly compelled the clerical regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, to briefly pause his country’s work on nuclear weapons.
Khamenei feared American military action at the time.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, left, meets Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr Albusaidi before negotiations with U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff in Muscat, Oman, April 12, 2025. (Iranian Foreign Ministry via AP)
Hannah said Trump’s “military threat is what brought Supreme Leader Khamenei to the table” because it “put his own regime at risk.” Hannah outlined what dismantlement “with a capital D” would mean for Iran. He said “all of their enriched uranium leaves the country,” and the centrifuges are destroyed and taken out of the country. Hannah said Iran’s secretive underground Fordow nuclear fuel enrichment plant and Natanz nuclear site were where Iran was caught digging tunnels in the mountains.
Hannah’s organization, JINSA, released an infographic Wednesday that focused in on Trump administration officials’ comments on verification and dismantlement.
According to a Reuters report, a senior Iranian official said Friday that Iran told the United States in talks last week it was ready to accept some limits on its uranium enrichment but needed watertight guarantees President Donald Trump would not again ditch a nuclear pact.
Tehran’s red lines “mandated by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei” could not be compromised in the talks, the official told Reuters, describing Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity.
He said those red lines meant Iran would never agree to dismantle its centrifuges for enriching uranium, halt enrichment altogether or reduce the amount of enriched uranium it stores to a level below the level it agreed in the 2015 deal that Trump abandoned.
U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff speaks after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to create a U.S. sovereign wealth fun, in the Oval Office of the White House Feb. 3, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
It would also not negotiate over its missile program, which Tehran views as outside the scope of any nuclear deal.
Top U.S. negotiator Steve Witkoff, in a post on X on Tuesday, said Iran must “stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment” to reach a deal with Washington.
Reuters contributed to this report.
