President Donald Trump decided negotiations would go nowhere with Iranian officials after Tehran’s “clever” negotiators “procrastinated” and masked their true nuclear capabilities and goals, senior administration officials said Tuesday.
The officials, during a midday call with reporters that lasted just over an hour, went into details about the level at which Iran proposed enriching uranium. They also described a potential need to gain “physical control” of areas inside Iran to seize up to 10,000 kilograms of remaining nuclear materials — the kind of work that could require U.S. ground forces.
One senior official said American negotiators had a “Perry Mason moment” at the negotiating table when they concluded the Iranian side was “hiding” things and “being deceptive.”
