WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has threatened that Iran will be bombed if it fails to make a nuclear deal with Washington.
“If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing,” NBC News said the president told one of its correspondents in an interview late Saturday. It said he also threatened to punish Iran with what he called “secondary tariffs.”
Trump’s remarks marked an escalation from his earlier statement, in which he warned that if Tehran refused to negotiate a new nuclear agreement, “bad, bad things are going to happen to Iran.”
It remained unclear whether he was alluding to a potential US airstrike alone or a coordinated operation involving Israel.
Tehran has always insisted its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.
On March 7, Trump said that he had sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urging negotiations and warning of potential military action if Iran refused.
Khamenei, however, argued that the US invitation for talks was a tactic to mislead global public opinion by presenting the United States as open to negotiations and Iran as opposed.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Sunday that Tehran had rejected direct negotiations with the United States in response to a letter from President Donald Trump over its nuclear programme.
Trump, who returned to the White House for a second term in January, has restored his “maximum pressure” policy of sanctions against Iran.
At the time, Trump withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and world powers, and reimposed economic sanctions.
According to NBC, Trump also said US and Iranian officials are “talking,” but he did not give details.
On Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told the official IRNA news agency that he had delivered a letter responding to Trump’s outreach to Oman, which has served as an intermediary in the past.
