Iran says no direct negotiations with US on nuclear plans
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has rejected direct negotiations with the US in response to a letter from President Donald Trump over its rapidly advancing nuclear programme.
“Although the possibility of direct negotiations between the two sides has been rejected in this response, it has been emphasised that the path for indirect negotiations remains open,” Pezeshkian said.
Trump’s overture comes as Israel and the US warn they’ll never let Iran acquire a nuclear weapon, leading to fears of a military confrontation as Tehran enriches uranium at near weapons-grade levels.
Trump’s first term in office was marked by troubled relations with Tehran. In 2018, he unilaterally withdrew the US from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers. He also ordered an attack that killed Iran’s top general in a drone strike in January 2020 in Iraq’s capital.
Trump says ‘there will be bombing’ if Iran doesn’t make nuclear deal
The US president has warned Iran to make a deal on its nuclear programme or risk the consequences.
In an interview with NBC News, Trump said: “If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing.”
He added: “But – 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.” Trump said he would consider these “secondary” tariffs “until such time as a deal is signed”.
‘Rough weeks’ of US-Iran tensions
Trumpused very incendiary language in this interview [with NBC News], saying that Iran would see bombing the likes of which they have never seen before if that country’s leadership doesn’t agree to curbing its nuclear weapons development.
As a reminder, it was Trump himself during his first term that unilaterally withdrew the United States from the Iran nuclear deal.
It’s been a rough couple of weeks between Iran and the US as Trump has said that any attacks from the Houthis, which are an Iranian-backed [group] in Yemen, would count as a shot fired by Iran.
That is one reason why he’s justified a continuing bombardment campaign by the US military against the Houthis.
