Donald Trump referred to relationships with Iran during Saturday's conversation with the NBC News correspondent.
– If they do not conclude an agreement, there will be a bombing – said the president, adding that he threatened to punish Iran with something he called “secondary tariffs”.
Trump had already announced that if Tehran refuses to negotiate a new nuclear agreement, “bad things will happen to Iran.”
It was not clear whether Trump threatened to bomb by American aircraft or maybe as part of the operation coordinated with Israel.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said “Politico” at the end of last month that “to stop the Iranian nuclear program, before it is armed, on the table should be on the table reliable military option”.
Analysts say Iran may be by a few weeks From the production of nuclear weapons – although Tehran denies that he is building such a weapon. However, such an attack carries the risk of spreading the conflict on wider scale.
Nuclear program. Trump sent a letter with a proposal to Irana
W 2018 r. Trump withdrew the United States from the contract regarding the alleviation of sanctions imposed on Iran, in exchange for Limiting his nuclear program.
Now, in his second term, he said that is open for talks on a new agreement that could reduce the risk of military escalation.
At the beginning of March, Trump revealed that He sent a letter With a proposal of such conversations to the highest leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Chamenei.
In the meantime Trump He continued his program “maximum pressure”, consisting in imposing additional sanctions and threatening military operations.
USA-Iran. Tehran refused to negotiate with Washington
Teheran, deeply suspicious towards the US administration after Trump's withdrawal from the original nuclear agreement, he refused to negotiate directly with Washington.
According to NBC, Trump also said that American and Iranian officials “talk”but he did not provide details.
In a video recording, published at the beginning of Sunday by the Iranian state media, President Masoud Pezeshkian said that Tehran's answer to Trump, delivered to intermediaries in Oman by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi, says that he says that “Direct negotiations have been rejected.”
Pezeshkian added, however, that “the highest leader also emphasized that indirect negotiations can be continued. “
“We don't avoid negotiations,” said Pezeshkian, the reformer who called for resumption nuclear conversations from the USA.
– It was rather their infidelity that caused our problems to date. They must prove that they can gain confidence in the matter of decisions and I hope that this will happen – he added.
It was not clear if Trump talked to NBC before or after Pezeshkian gave his comments.
Oman in the pastand served as an intermediary between the USA and Iran.