Iran is ready for a more intense war and will escalate counterstrikes if the US continues attacking its territory and infrastructure, according to a senior official from the Islamic Republic.
Tehran has no intention of backing down in the face of an American naval blockade and attacks on its oil tankers, said the official, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive matters. The economic pain for Iran may be increasing, they said, but the country’s leaders see the war with the US as posing an existential threat that leaves them little choice but to keep fighting.
The comments come as hostilities between the US and Iran show little sign of easing, with the war now into its seventh month. On Tuesday night, Washington said one of its warships had to evade an Iranian attack, and that it destroyed five of the Islamic Republic’s energy tankers in response. Tehran then fired around 20 missiles at a Jordanian airbase used by the US and attacked more American naval ships, as well as several commercial vessels.
The tit-for-tat attacks have pushed up energy prices, with Brent crude climbing above $100 a barrel this week and extending its gain this year to around 65 percent. US diesel pump prices have hit a record, adding to pressure on President Donald Trump to end a conflict that’s unpopular with voters ahead of midterm elections on Nov. 3.
On Wednesday, Trump downplayed concerns about energy prices and said the war would be over soon. He persisted in saying Iran was incapacitated, telling reporters: “The war is going to end immediately after the election because they can’t hold out any longer.”
Still, the Wall Street Journal reported top US officials including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have raised the prospect that Iran may not yield to increased pressures and the conflict could stretch through the remainder of Trump’s term in office, which ends in January 2029.
The senior Iranian official said the country has been rebuilding its military capabilities since the most intense period of the war ended in April and has enough missiles for a lengthy conflict.
Many of Iran’s leaders “believe the Trump administration responds only to threats and escalation,” Dina Esfandiary of Bloomberg Economics wrote. “They also think the administration is more sensitive to an escalating war in the lead-up to the midterm elections.”
This week, Iran’s new security chief, Mohsen Rezaee, said its military posture toward US ships and bases had been “fundamentally recalibrated,” signaling a more aggressive stance.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of parliament and lead negotiator with the US in previous ceasefire talks, warned the era of “proportionate responses” was over.
The war, which erupted when the US and Israel began strikes on Iran in late February, has entered a stalemate of sorts, with the sides jockeying for control over the Strait of Hormuz. No official peace talks have been held for months and there’s little sign of Washington or Tehran being willing to return to the negotiating table.
The US, wary of fuel prices going up even more, and having used up a significant portion of its interceptor missiles, is trying to avoid a return to all-out warfare. Instead, it’s trying to squeeze Iran’s economy via the blockade and threats to penalize governments and companies that don’t cut ties with Tehran.
Washington’s aim is to make Iran reopen Hormuz and restart talks to end the conflict.
Iran continues to insist it has the right to manage traffic through the vital waterway and is regularly targeting ships that pass through without its permission. That is forcing the US to respond militarily and raising the risk of an escalatory spiral.
The blockade is hurting the Iranian economy. With Tehran hardly able to export petroleum or import many vital goods, inflation has accelerated to almost 90 percent and the rial is depreciating rapidly. Economic pressures led to mass protests late last year, triggering a crackdown by authorities that killed thousands of people.
The Iranian official acknowledged the worsening economic situation. Still, they said the country’s leaders believe they have little choice but to keep fighting until they’re confident Washington will be too wary to attack again in future.
Some officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian, have said Iran should negotiate with the US to ease the financial pressures. Yet even they say the White House must first lift the blockade and go back to the terms of the so-called Memorandum of Understanding, a ceasefire deal signed in June but which rapidly broke down.
“The political elites are locked in a debate over whether to escalate or just resist,” said Esfandiary. “Despite the debate, Iran is deciding how to retaliate faster and more efficiently, suggesting it has developed a menu of responses to US escalation. It seeks to impose greater costs on the US.”
