IRGC Adviser Mohammad Reza Naqdi Says Iran Could Prolong War Until Trump Leaves Office

An IRGC adviser, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, told PBS NewsHour on Tuesday that Iran could deliberately prolong its war with the United States until President Donald Trump leaves office, using attrition to deter future attacks.

“Mohammad Reza Naqdi told PBS NewsHour on Tuesday”

India Today

Naqdi said the strategy is meant to impose costs and build deterrence, adding, “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,”.

BBC

He also warned about Iran’s ability to keep fighting, saying Iran was producing more missiles each day than it was launching, and claimed, “If there comes a day when Iran has no more missiles left, that's when we will be even more dangerous for America,”.

In the same remarks, Naqdi linked deterrence to the idea that “the enemy never dares to attack us,” and said Iran could become broader in its threat if its missile stockpile were exhausted.

Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, told CNN on Thursday that the war on Iran and the Strait of Hormuz reflect what he described as “American intelligence failure and the United States’ miscalculation,” and warned, “The worst of the fabricated news is the false intelligence. So be careful.”

Iran also said in response to American officials’ claims that the strait is open that “the Strait of Hormuz remains closed and will not open until they accept Iran’s terms,” according to the Iranian semi-official Tasnim News Agency.

CNN Arabic

Separately, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday that discussions with the United States about extending the ceasefire under a temporary framework did not take place, saying, “There is no talk of a extension.”

The Reuters account also quoted the official saying, “The United States violated the temporary agreement 48 hours after it was reached and pulled out a few days later,” while the BBC reported that Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif warned of “Intelligence Failures” in a post on X.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Secret Service and the military wanted him to travel on a “different plane” due to a threat, telling reporters, “I do what the Secret Service and the military tell me. They wanted me to travel on a different flight, on a different plane,”.

“They wanted me to travel on a different flight, on a different plane”

Telemundo

The reporting described a secret exit from Air Force One using an airport catering truck in Ankara, Turkey, with Trump later traveling to RAF Mildenhall in the United Kingdom on a C-32A, while the White House communications director Steven Cheung said the administration uses “all the tools at our disposal to address those threats.”

As the conflict continues, the Associated Press reported that Trump is pivoting back to sanctions for Iran, with the administration hoping financial squeeze can bring an end to the war and fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil and natural gas tankers.

AP also quoted Trump saying, “Yeah, they can make trouble, but they’re broke,” and described the administration’s Operation Economic Fury against Iran since April 16, alongside the claim that the sanctions component is the “financial equivalent” of a bombing campaign.