Prolonging the conflict until Trump leaves office is among Tehran’s options, Mohammad Reza Naqdi has said
Iran can stay in the fight in a prolonged armed conflict with the US, even if it lasts the rest of Donald Trump’s term in office, a senior Iranian general has said.
Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) voiced confidence in Tehran’s ability to sustain a long-term confrontation during an interview with PBS on Tuesday. His remarks came amid media reports of pressure on US munitions stockpiles and declining morale among American forces deployed in the Middle East.
Tehran’s objective is “to attain deterrence so that the enemy never dares to attack us, so we can live with security,” Naqdi told the US broadcaster when asked whether Iranian commanders intended to “drag out” the conflict until Trump was no longer in office.
“One way is to prolong this war until we get to the next term of the presidency and cause attrition, so that if anyone else wants to attack Iran, they will know there is a cost,” he said.
Trump launched a 40-day bombing campaign against Iran in late February. Despite the loss of senior officials, the government in Tehran retained control of the country and responded with attacks on US military facilities in the region, while also exerting economic pressure on Washington’s allies and global markets.
The conflict has become increasingly unpopular among US voters, raising concerns among Republicans ahead of the November midterm elections.
Trump has alternated between threats of further military escalation and claims that Iran has been weakened to the point of almost accepting a peace agreement favorable to Washington. On Wednesday, he claimed that the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, imposed in April, had been widely described as a “wall of steel” and that Tehran “has no money.”
“The longer this war lasts, the more experience we gain,” Naqdi told PBS. “We had never seen a real war to gain real experience to learn how to fight with America. In these five months, we have learned how. We have also seen how the American military is weaker than what we perceived.”
Naqdi also claimed that Iran is producing drones and missiles at a faster rate than it is expending them and could continue fighting for years.
Should those stockpiles eventually be exhausted, he added, Tehran could instead target what he described as “thousands of [American] economic interests throughout the world.”
