Iran would have to acquire a nuclear weapon if attacked by the United States or its allies, an adviser to the country's supreme leader warned, following a threat by US President Donald Trump. The comments came after Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, promised to hit back if Trump carried out a threat to bomb the Islamic Republic if it did not make a deal to curb its nuclear program.

Some feel that Trump’s threats to “de-certify” the hard-won Iran Nuclear Deal is dangerous, based on malignant ignorance, and must be forcefully opposed. Even Senator Bob Corker, the Republican Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on TV last Sunday that President Trump is treating his office like “a reality show,” with reckless threats toward other countries that could set the nation “on the path to World War III”.

A refusal to certify would hand the matter to Congress and open a 60-day period for debate. But we need to take action now.

It is time to note that the Iran Deal is working to lessen the danger of proliferation and war and should be respected and strengthened, not demeaned and undermined. Walking away from the Iran deal is a dangerous policy that should be strongly rejected.

One should be committed to keeping the peace between peoples and urge strong ones to take action right now to help stop a disaster in the making.

In fact, U.S. President has threatened Iran with bombing and secondary tariffs if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program. In Trump's first remarks since Iran rejected direct negotiations with Washington last week, he had told that U.S. and Iranian officials were talking, but did not elaborate.

"If they don't make a deal, there will be bombing," Trump said in a telephone interview. "It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before."

Iran has already rejected direct negotiations with U.S. Whereas, Trump says he will wait "a couple of weeks" before deciding on tariffs.

"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.

Iran's Response

Iran sent a response through Oman to a letter from Trump urging Tehran to reach a new nuclear deal, saying its policy was to not engage in direct negotiations with the United States while under its maximum pressure campaign and military threats, Tehran's foreign minister was quoted as saying.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian reiterated the policy on Sunday. "Direct negotiations (with the U.S.) have been rejected, but Iran has always been involved in indirect negotiations, and now too, the Supreme Leader has emphasized that indirect negotiations can still continue," he said, referring to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Trump also threatened so-called secondary tariffs, which affect buyers of a country's goods, on both Russia and Iran. He signed an executive order last week authorizing such tariffs on buyers of Venezuelan oil.

Speaking to reporters later on Sunday, Trump has said that 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.

In his first 2017-21 term, Trump withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers that placed strict limits on Tehran's disputed nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.

Trump also reimposed sweeping U.S. sanctions. Since then, the Islamic Republic has far surpassed the agreed limits in its escalating program of uranium enrichment.

Tehran has so far rebuffed Trump's warning to make a deal or face military consequences.

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.