Trump threatens Iran with bombing over nuclear deal

President Donald Trump threatened Iran on Sunday with military strikes and economic penalties if Tehran refuses to reach a new nuclear agreement with the United States.

In his first comments since Iran rejected direct negotiations with Washington last week, Trump told NBC News that U.S. and Iranian officials were communicating, though he provided no details.

“If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing,” Trump said in a telephone interview. “It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”

“There’s a chance that if they don’t make a deal, that I will do secondary tariffs on them like I did four years ago,” he added.
Iran responded through Oman to Trump’s letter urging a new nuclear deal, stating they would not engage in direct talks while under America’s “maximum pressure campaign and military threats,” according to Iran’s foreign minister last Thursday.

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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian reaffirmed this position Sunday. “Direct negotiations (with the U.S.) have been rejected, but Iran has always been involved in indirect negotiations, and now too, the Supreme Leader has emphasized that indirect negotiations can still continue,” he said, referring to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Trump also mentioned possible secondary tariffs targeting buyers of Russian and Iranian goods, similar to measures he authorized last week against purchasers of Venezuelan oil.

During his 2017-2021 term, Trump withdrew from the 2015 international agreement limiting Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. After he reimposed U.S. sanctions, Iran has significantly exceeded the previously agreed uranium enrichment limits.
Western nations accuse Iran of secretly pursuing nuclear weapons by enriching uranium to high purity levels beyond what’s necessary for civilian purposes. Iran maintains its nuclear program is exclusively for civilian energy production.