He stressed that while Iran is not against negotiations in principle, Washington must first rectify its past “misconduct” and rebuild trust.
His remarks, reported by the ISNA news agency, come amid
escalating tensions between the two nations.
“If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC on Sunday.
“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.”
Earlier in March, Trump had written to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warning that Tehran must either agree to fresh negotiations or face a military confrontation.
Khamenei dismissed the ultimatum, insisting that Iran would only engage in talks through intermediaries.
In his first term as US president in 2017-2021, 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.
After Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018 and reimposed sweeping US sanctions, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that Iran had amassed enough fissile material for multiple bombs but had made no effort to build one