Trump Threatens Iran's Bombings If He Disagrees With Nuclear Program Negotiations

JAKARTA - US President Donald Trump threatened Iran with bombings and secondary fares if Tehran did not reach an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program.

In the first statement since Iran rejected direct negotiations with Washington last week, Trump told NBC News US and Iranian officials were speaking, but did not elaborate.

"If they don't make an agreement, there will be a bombing," Trump said in a telephone interview.

"It will be a bombing they have never seen before," he continued.

"There's a possibility that if they don't make an agreement, I'll charge them secondary rates like I did four years ago," Trump said.

Iran sent a response via Oman on a letter from Trump urging Tehran to reach a new nuclear deal, saying its policy was not to engage in direct negotiations with the United States while under a 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, the Supreme Leader has stressed that indirect negotiations can still be continued," he said, referring to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In an interview with NBC, Trump also threatened to impose a so-called secondary tariff, which would affect buyers of a country's goods, both in Russia and Iran.

He signed an executive order last week that authorized the tariff for Venezuelan oil buyers.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday at Air Force One, Trump said he would make a decision on the secondary tariff based on whether Tehran made the deal.

"We might give him a few weeks and if we don't see any progress, we will. We will not enforce it now. But if you remember, I did it six years ago, and it worked very well," he said.

In his first term in 2017-21, Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 deal between Iran and major world countries imposing strict limits on Tehran's disputed nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.