WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump threatened Iran on Sunday with bombing and secondary tariffs if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear programme.

In Trump’s first remarks since Iran rejected direct negotiations with Washi­ngton last week, he told NBC News that US and Iranian officials were talking, but did not elaborate.

“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.”

He added, “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.”

Iran sent a response through Oman to a letter from Trump urging Tehran to reach a new nuclear deal, saying its policy was to not engage in direct negotiations with the United States while under its maximum pressure campaign and military threats, Tehran’s foreign minister was quoted as saying on Thursday.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian reiterated the policy on Sunday. “Direct negotiations (with the US) have been rejected, but Iran has always been involved in indirect negotiations, and now too, the Supreme Leader has emphasised that indirect negotiations can still continue,” he said, referring to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In the NBC interview, Trump also threatened so-called secondary tariffs, which affect buyers of a country’s goods, on both Russia and Iran. He signed an executive order last week authorising such tariffs on buyers of Venezuelan oil.

In his first 2017-21 term, Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 deal with Iran that placed limits on Tehran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2025