Six months, one interim deal and multiple rounds of talks later, the war between the United States and Iran continues to simmer. The question that has been a constant throughout these months of Washington and Tehran launching strikes against each other is “when will the war end?”
A top official of the Iran Guards may have answered this question in a recent interview. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, a general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, told PBS News Hour that Tehran could ‘prolong’ the war until US President Donald Trump's term ends, which is January 20, 2029.
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“We have to attain deterrence so that the enemy never dares to attack us, so we can live with security. 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,” Naqdi said in the interview.
‘Confusion, bewilderment in America’
He claimed that Iran has been victorious in the war after it defeated the US in its objectives of the toppling of the leadership and the breaking up of Iran.
{{/usCountry}}He claimed that Iran has been victorious in the war after it defeated the US in its objectives of the toppling of the leadership and the breaking up of Iran.
{{/usCountry}}“We saw confusion and bewilderment in America. It became a war without a strategy. Every two or three days, they announced a new objective. For several nights, they said they want to invade Kharg Island. They said they want to open the Strait of Hormuz. They mobilized their battleships. Everything they tried, we can show how we were victorious,” he said.
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Iran yet to achieve ‘final objective’
Naqdi added that Iran is yet to achieve its ‘final objective.’
“The longer this war lasts, the more experience we gain. 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,” he added.
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The remarks of the top Iran military official come amid reports that Iran has reorganised its military to be more aggressive abroad as talks on ending the war with the US remain mired in stalemate. This hints towards the fact that Tehran may be preparing for a protracted era of regional conflict.
A raft of top military appointments by Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei marks a shift to an “offensive doctrine,” Mohammad Reza Naqdi, a general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who advises the force’s new commander, said in an interview on state TV late Tuesday.
“Whenever the conditions are favorable and the order is issued, we must be able to take the operation into enemy territory,” he said, contrasting the approach with a pre-war doctrine that was “primarily based on defense and the preservation of the country.”
The stalemate continues between the US and Iran as talks have failed to end the conflict despite mediation by Pakistan, Turkey and Oman.