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WASHINGTON — The United States is offering a bounty of up to $20 million, alongside potential resettlement abroad, for actionable intelligence regarding Iran’s nuclear programme, the US military announced on Friday. The move comes as President Donald Trump reiterated that Tehran is eager to conclude an agreement to halt the eight-month-old regional conflict.
The bounty is being administered through Rewards for Justice, a long-standing State Department programme established in 1984 to offer financial compensation for information that safeguards American lives and national security interests.
In a statement published on X, US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed the scope of the appeal, noting that the initiative seeks verified details concerning Iran’s nuclear programme, including its enrichment facilities, specialized hardware, and affiliated personnel within the scientific and research community.
The State Department attributed the urgent intelligence appeal to an acute oversight deficit, stating that Iran’s persistent failure to comply with its safeguards obligations under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has resulted in the nuclear watchdog losing its “continuity of knowledge” regarding the manufacturing and inventory of essential components, particularly uranium-enriching centrifuges. The announcement provided no explicit thresholds regarding what specific level of disclosures would command the maximum payout.
The diplomatic bounty arrives amidst sharp contradictions in Washington’s rhetoric. Trump has repeatedly maintained that previous strikes effectively destroyed Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure.
Speaking in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday evening, Trump defended the initial strikes, asserting that had the US not struck Iranian sites, Israel would have ceased to exist. He contended that Tehran would have deployed atomic weapons had they possessed them, obliterating the wider Middle East.
Nevertheless, Trump emphasised that Iran—its military and economy severely strained by eight months of active hostilities—is actively seeking an exit route, remarking that Washington is currently engaging with Iranian representatives who “want to make a deal very badly.”
Regional mediation remains intensive as diplomats race to stave off any fresh escalation. On Tuesday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian confirmed that his administration continues to pursue a resolution through dialogue.
Even so, lingering military friction remains visible. Earlier in the week, Trump indicated that American forces still needed to neutralise a limited number of remaining objectives, pointing specifically to the contested site at “Pickaxe Mountain” in central Iran—a suspected subterranean facility whose nuclear function Tehran has consistently denied.
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