Trump threatens bombing if Iran does not make nuclear deal

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Iran on Sunday with bombing and secondary tariffs if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program, Reuters reports. 

In Trump's first remarks since Iran rejected direct negotiations with Washington last week, the U.S. President said that U.S. and Iranian officials were talking, but did not elaborate.

"If they don't make a deal, there will be bombing," Reuters quoted Trump as saying in a telephone interview with NBC News. "It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before."

"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," he added.

Speaking to reporters later on Sunday on Air Force One, Trump said he is going to make a decision on the secondary tariffs based on whether Tehran makes a deal.

"We'll probably give it a couple of weeks and if we don't see any progress, we're going to put them on. We're not putting them on right now. But if you remember, I did that six years ago, and it worked very well," he said.

Western powers accuse Iran of having a clandestine agenda to develop nuclear weapons capability by enriching uranium to a high level of fissile purity, above what they say is justifiable for a civilian atomic energy program.

Tehran says its nuclear program is wholly for civilian energy purposes.