CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were among the “most pessimistic” about whether the Iranians would honor their commitments to make substantive concessions on their nuclear program, CNN reports

Newsquawk StaffPublished 16 Jun 2026, 20:36 UTCOn the live feed at 20:16 UTC — 3 more headlines followed before this page went public

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CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were among the “most pessimistic” about whether the Iranians would honor their commitments to make substantive concessions on their nuclear program, CNN reports

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CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were among the “most pessimistic” about whether the Iranians would honor their commitments to make substantive concessions on their nuclear program, even if they agreed to negotiate on that issue, one of the officials said. But at various points, nearly ever senior official — including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance and Trumps envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — raised serious reservations, the officials said.

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