The U.S. will launch military attacks on Iran if Tehran does not engage in talks with Washington on limiting its nuclear program, President Donald Trump said on Sunday, after Iran’s foreign minister dismissed direct contact between the two countries.
Newsweek has reached out to the Iranian Foreign Ministry for comment via email.
Why It Matters
The president told reporters on Friday that “very bad things” will happen to Iran, should Tehran refuse to “talk it out” with Washington, against a backdrop of deepening fears of a possible military confrontation between Iran and the U.S.
What To Know
Trump told NBC on Sunday that if the Iranian regime did not “make a deal” with the White House, “there will be bombing.”
“It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before,” the president said.
In separate remarks on Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran had “rejected” direct negotiations between its government and the Trump administration, but stressed that “that the path for indirect negotiations remains open.”
U.S. and Iranian officials are “talking,” Trump said on Sunday.
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, told state media on Thursday that Iran had responded to Trump’s missive via Oman, but did not elaborate on the contents of the reply. The answer “fully laid out” Iran’s stance, Araghchi said.
Iran has repeatedly said it will not engage with the U.S. on nuclear talks while facing “maximum pressure and military threats.”
Trump last month unveiled a new raft of sanctions designed to exert “maximum pressure on the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” cut Tehran off from access to a nuclear weapon and to curtail “Iran’s malign influence abroad.”
Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, indicated earlier this month that “all options are on the table” to head off Iran’s path to being a nuclear state. But Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, pushed for diplomatic negotiations rather than military solutions.
During his first term as president, Trump pulled out of a Barack Obama-era agreement with Iran formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or simply as the Iran nuclear deal. The agreement loosened sanctions on Iran in exchange for fresh constraints on the country’s nuclear development. Iran later abandoned provisions of the JCPOA and forged ahead with its nuclear program.
Tehran has maintained its nuclear development is peaceful, but the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog has warned Iran has dramatically increased its uranium enrichment to levels very close to what would be needed to produce a nuclear weapon.
Iran may not have decided to make a nuclear weapon yet, but Tehran has certainly done its best to make sure it could do so very rapidly, William Alberque, a visiting fellow at the Henry L. Stimson Center and a former director of NATO‘s Arms Control, Disarmament and WMD Non-Proliferation Center, previously told Newsweek.
Trump’s administration, as well as key regional ally Israel, has repeatedly said Iran cannot gain possession of nuclear weapons.
What People Are Saying
National security adviser Mike Waltz told CBS earlier in March that Iran “has to give up its program in a way that the entire world can see.”
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told Newsweek in October: “If you end up with an Iran with a nuclear weapon, it’ll be a very, very dangerous situation for the world, and you’ll spark a nuclear arms race right across the region.”
What Happens Next
It remains to be seen how willing Iran is to enter formal discussions with the U.S. on its nuclear program.
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