Russia has warned that any strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure will lead to ‘catastrophic’ consequences after US President Donald Trump threatened Iran with ‘bombings like never before’ if it fails to agree on a deal with Washington over its nuclear programme. In an interview with International Affairs on Tuesday, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergei Ryabkov, underscored that threats will increase tensions, adding, “We consider such methods inappropriate; we condemn them, and we see them as an attempt to impose (the US) will on Iran.” Russia has refrained from making direct jibes at US President Donald Trump despite current tensions.

Trump threatened Iran with bombings

Earlier, Trump threatened Iran with bombings if it did not sign a nuclear deal and agree with Washington over its nuclear programme. In an interview with NBC News, the US president said, “If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing. It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”

After Trump came back to power in the US, his policy of “maximum pressure” on Tehran kicked in, causing the freefall of Iran’s currency, the Rial.

Iran rejects direct negotiations with US over its nuclear programme

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

President Masoud Pezeshkian said that 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.

Here’s what IAEA says on Iran’s nuclear programme?

Iran has long maintained its programme is for peaceful purposes, even as its officials increasingly threaten to pursue the bomb.

A report in February, however, by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, said that Iran has accelerated its production of near weapons-grade uranium.