WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump Sunday threatened Iran with bombing and secondary tariffs if it did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program.
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.”
“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 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 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.
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 authorizing such tariffs on buyers of Venezuelan oil.
Trump did not elaborate on those potential tariffs.
In his first 2017-21 term, Trump withdrew the US from a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers that placed strict limits on Tehran’s disputed nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
Trump also reimposed sweeping US sanctions. Since then, the Islamic Republic has far surpassed the agreed limits in its escalating program of uranium enrichment.
Tehran has so far rebuffed Trump’s warning to make a deal or face military consequences.
Western powers accuse Iran of having a clandestine agenda to develop nuclear weapons capability by enriching uranium to a high level of fissile purity, above what they say is justifiable for a civilian atomic energy program. Tehran says its nuclear program is wholly for civilian energy purposes.
Talking about Moscow, Trump said he was “pissed off” at Russian President Vladimir Putin and will impose secondary tariffs of 25% to 50% on buyers of Russian oil if he feels Moscow is blocking his efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
Trump said he was angry after Putin last week criticized the credibility of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s leadership.
Trump said he could impose new trade measures within a month, in comments that reflect his growing frustration about the lack of movement on a ceasefire in the three-year conflict, which began when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
“If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia’s fault... I am going to put secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia,” Trump said.
“That would be, that if you buy oil from Russia, you can’t do business in the United States,” Trump said. “There will be a 25% tariff on all oil, a 25- to 50-point tariff on all oil.”
There was no immediate reaction from Moscow. Russia has called numerous Western sanctions and restrictions “illegal” and designed for the West to take economic advantage in its rivalry with Russia.