Donald Trump is considering Iran's offer of indirect core conversations: Report

02 April 2025 03:38 PM IST Last week Donald Trump threatened that Iran would be bombed if it continued in the development of nuclear weapons. US President Donald Trump is considering an Iranian proposal for indirect core talks, while at the same time raising the US military presence in the Middle East, in case he prefers to carry out military strikes, Axios reports on Wednesday with reference to sources. US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on March 31, 2025. (AP) Unidentified US officials, cited by Axios, said that the Trump administration thinks that direct discussions would have a greater chance of success, but that it also did not exclude the format that the Iranians proposed and did not object to Oman. Last week, Trump threatened that Iran would be bombarded if it continued to develop nuclear weapons. “If they do not do an agreement, there will be bombardment,” NBC News said the president told one of his correspondents in an interview on Saturday. It added that he also threatened to punish Iran with what he calls ‘secondary rates’. Read also | “No choice” than to acquire Nukes: Ayatollah Khamenei’s assistance on Donald Trump’s “bomb attack” for Iran in response to Trump’s comments, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the Islamic Republic had rejected direct negotiations with the United States about its nuclear program. “We do not avoid conversations; these are the promises that have caused us problems so far,” Pezeshkian said at a cabinet meeting. “They have to prove that they can build trust.” Analysts said Iran may have been only a few weeks away from producing a deliverable nuclear weapon – although Tehran denies building such arms, according to AFP. Read also | Iran rejects direct discussions with us about the nuclear program after Trump’s letter in 2018, Trump pulled the United States out of an agreement to alleviate the sanctions against Iran in exchange for its nuclear program. In his second term, however, the US president said he was open to discussions about a new agreement that could reduce the risk of military escalation.