Tuesday, March, 10 2026 - A top Iranian official has warned that the government is prepared for a long war with the US and signaled that it is willing to continue attacking Gulf countries in an effort to persuade them to convince US President Donald Trump to step back from the conflict.
The warning came in a new CNN interview in Tehran with Kamal
Kharazi, foreign policy adviser to the office of the Supreme Leader, who ruled
out diplomacy for now and said the war would only end through economic pain,
signaling a hardening of the government’s stance on day 10 of the conflict.
“I don’t see any room for diplomacy anymore. Because Donald
Trump had been deceiving others and not keeping with his promises, and we
experienced this in two times of negotiations – that while we were engaged in
negotiation, they struck us,” Kharazi told CNN on Monday.
“There’s no room unless the economic pressure would be built
up to the extent that other countries would intervene to guarantee (the)
termination of aggression of Americans and Israelis against Iran,” Kharazi
said, suggesting that Gulf Arab countries and beyond need to put pressure on
the US to end the war.
“This war has been producing a lot of pressure,
economic pressure – on others, in terms of inflation, in terms of lack of
energy, and so if it will be continued, this pressure will be built up more,
and therefore others have no choice (but) to intervene,” he said.
Since the US and Israel launched the war, Iran has
struck a slew of countries across the Middle East. Tehran claims it is
targeting US interests in Gulf nations but residential buildings and airports
have also repeatedly come under attack.
The Iranian strikes have exploited the fragility of the
global energy trade including infrastructure and transit routes. Maritime
traffic through the Straight of Hormuz has all but collapsed, with crude oil
prices surging past $100 a barrel on Monday, rattling wallets and the stock
market.
An estimated 20% of world oil supply has been disrupted by
the ongoing conflict, roughly twice as big as the record set during the Suez
Crisis of 1956-1957, according to historical data from Rapidan Energy Group.
Not only has the war derailed the flow of oil out of the
region, it has also effectively wiped out the “spare capacity” that typically
serves as a shock absorber in energy markets. Spare capacity measures how much
more oil production could quickly get brought back online, if needed.
A spokesperson for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
(IRGC) said Sunday that Iran is using 60% of its firepower to attack US bases
and “strategic interests” in the region.
Meanwhile, Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of former
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was elevated to the country’s highest post over the
weekend, an indication that further escalation is likely.
Asked if the Iranian military and the supreme leadership are
as one going forward, Kharazi said: “Yes, exactly.”
“The responsibility of the leader of Islamic Republic of
Iran is to lead the defense capability of Iran, and therefore, as Ayatollah
Khamenei was doing that, now the new leader would do that,” he said.
Trump said last week that Khamenei’s appointment as his
father’s successor would be “unacceptable” to him.
“That is not his business,” Kharazi said
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