Iran rejects direct talks with US; Trump threatens military action ‘the likes of which they have never seen before’

Iran’s president says that the Islamic Republic rejects direct negotiations with the United States over its rapidly advancing nuclear program, offering Tehran’s first response to a letter US President Donald Trump sent to the country’s supreme leader.

President Masoud Pezeshkian says Iran’s response, delivered via the sultanate of Oman, left open the possibility of indirect negotiations with Washington. However, such talks have made no progress since Trump in his first term unilaterally withdrew the US from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.

“We don’t avoid talks; it’s the breach of promises that has caused issues for us so far,” Pezeshkian says in televised remarks during a cabinet meeting. “They must prove that they can build trust.”

In comments aired just ahead of Pezeshkian’s response, Trump tells NBC News that if Iran doesn’t make a deal, “there will be bombing and it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”

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