Verbal rancor between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran intensified when U.S. President Donald Trump gave Tehran an ultimatum to renegotiate a new nuclear deal with Washington or face serious threats. “If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing,” President Trump told NBC News, on March 30.
“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 said, referring to a crippling form of sanctions imposed under a maximum pressure campaign during his first term in office. At the time he also removed the U.S. from a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers.
The verbal threat came after President Trump sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in early March proposing negotiations for a new nuclear deal. He set a two-month deadline for an agreement and underscored America’s oft-repeated position that “Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon.”
Supreme Leader Khamenei rejected the offer and President Trump’s threat drew a swift reaction from Iran toward its decades-long foe. Iran responded saying it will not tolerate threats of war which they said violates international norms and will only breed violence.
“An open threat of ‘bombing’ by a Head of State against Iran is a shocking—affront—to the very essence of International Peace and Security,” said Esmaeil Baqaei, spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a March 31 post on X.
Mr. Baqaei, who also heads Iran’s Center for Public Diplomacy, said such threats violate the United Nations Charter and betray the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
“Violence breeds violence, peace begets peace. The U.S. can choose the course …; and concede to CONSEQUENCES …,” added Mr. Baqaei.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated Tehran’s readiness to hold indirect negotiations with Washington over its peaceful nuclear program, warning that U.S. threats are “complicating” the situation. “The Islamic Republic, as in the past, is ready for real negotiations from an equal position and indirectly,” said Mr. Araghchi, reported PressTV.ir.
The U.S. argues that Iran’s nuclear energy program aims to develop nuclear weapons. Notwithstanding, Iran has long refuted the assertion, and maintains its program is only for peaceful purposes.
“When we look at Trump and this sort of blackmail approach he’s taking … either you negotiate or we bomb you is basically just putting a gun to someone’s head,” said Eugene Puryear, an investigative journalist. “That’s blackmail, not a negotiation,” he explained.
However, the tensions did not just start. The complexities of U.S.-Iran relations date back to the mid-20th century, said Mr. Puryear. “It speaks to the long-term policy post-World War II of the United States to maintain total control over West Asia, with the major issue being oil,” he said.
Mr. Puryear explained the strategy includes Israel since its inception in 1948. In the very beginning of the establishment of Israel when England was the most powerful country worldwide, the proponents of a so-called Jewish state pushed their cause to England with a promise to defend Western interests in the region.
“We’ve been seeing this play out, very significantly vis-a-vis Iran,” said Mr. Puryear. He reasons how multiple times throughout the second half of the 20th century, Iran became an obstacle to total U.S./Western control of West Asia and its oil. This has become more important because this is where rising Asian countries like China are getting their oil from.
For the U.S., most of its oil is made in America. “So, it’s less about the U.S. economy. It’s about the U.S. being able to have a chokehold on the economy of the rising economic powers,” said Mr. Puryear.
America’s meddling in Iran came to the forefront with the 1953 coup against Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh over his nationalizing his country’s oil.
His overthrow, orchestrated by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the British MI6, showed the extent of foreign interference and shaping Iran’s future.
That moment in history and the subsequent decades of U.S.-backed authoritarian rule under Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, lends context to Iran’s current distrust of Western powers.
“To me, all analysis of the current events must be viewed through the prism of continued American aggression towards Iran since that period,” said Dr. Wilmer Leon, political commentator and radio host. “The United States installs the Shah, and then the Iranians overthrow the Shah without firing a bullet,” he points out, referring to the 1979 Islamic revolution.
“The United States has wanted regime change in Iran for 40 years, and to no avail,” Dr. Leon continues. “Iran has become a serious obstacle in Israel’s attempts to control the region.
And so much so that Iran now has developed missile technologies, advanced missile technologies that I would say, make it virtually impossible for the United States and Israel to bully Iran and scare Iran,” he reasoned.
“I think Iran is looking at the much longer game here than either the United States or Israel,” said Dr. Leon. “Iran has made the decision; we will resist you at all costs … but please understand, you will not get out of this unscathed,” he said.
Mr. Puryear added that over the last 40 years, there was a combined set of interests amongst U.S. elites and the Israelis to make sure Iran is weak, divided, and potentially would fall.
The fear is that Iran is an independent nation as it functioned under Mosaddeq in the 50s, and under Ayatollah [Ruhollah] Khomeini and the Islamic regime of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Iran has sovereignty, therefore, should control its resources and should be able to have its relationships with the region that are not controlled by the U.S., England, or anyone else, he argued.
Mr. Puryear pointed out that Iranian citizens may begin to question “Why is it that these Western countries get the ability to determine what happens in this region and our broader region, with Iran, the other Arab states, and so on and so forth?
Why is our sovereignty not respected? And we’re going to stand up to defend the right of people’s self-determination in the whole region.”
He noted that he thinks what is happening is a continuation of a long policy that’s based on the need to control a critical economic region to keep a stranglehold on the rising powers of the world. “They really are trying to halt the clear decline of Western hegemony over the whole world, said Mr. Puryear.
For decades U.S. foreign policy, coupled with instigation from the State of Israel fostered a climate to justify an attack on Iran. Multiple administrations worked to influence the international community, particularly the Muslim world, to isolate Iran.
While they were setting the stage for Iran’s destruction, which could trigger a wider war known scripturally as Armageddon, a warning against such errant policy was given by the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad of the Nation of Islam and his National Representative, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.
For decades, both divine servants have cautioned America about exceeding the boundaries of justice. Minister Farrakhan has warned previous presidents against aggression and being baited into a war on Iran by Israel.
“To the international community, I say the principle of justice is the greatest principle of fair dealing,” said Minister Farrakhan, in a January 2008 interview with The Final Call.
“If the international community would deal fairly, they could prevent a war that is triggered by an unprovoked attack on Iran,” he said in guidance that still holds as true in 2025.
The controversy over Iran’s developing nuclear power is wrought with hypocrisy. America is a top nuclear power, and Israel practices a policy of “nuclear ambiguity” or “deliberate ambiguity” while never officially confirming or denying possessing nuclear weapons.
Despite that, numerous reports and expert analyses estimate that Israel has 80 to 400 nuclear warheads. Israel is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and has never conducted or openly acknowledged any nuclear tests.
Critics point out that Israel’s ambiguous policy allows it to dodge international scrutiny of its program. As a regional trouble source, Israel’s policy raises questions about accountability and transparency.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has increased its military footprint in the region. “In this instance, it’s doing Israel’s bidding, and they will do it to their own demise,” said Dr. Leon.
