Iran warns new war with US could outlast earlier fighting

Tehran — Iran warned on Sunday that any renewed war with the United States could last longer than the previous round of fighting, after President Donald Trump said Washington still had targets to "take care" of and could strike them "in 10 minutes".

"A potential future war could last longer than [the] previous conflict, and the American president would not be in a position to dictate the timing or the conditions of its conclusion," army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia said, according to Iranian state television.

The exchange comes as diplomatic efforts to end the war, which began on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes on Iran, are repeatedly punctuated by threats to resume bombardments. Tehran retaliated in the war's most intense phase with missile and drone attacks across the region, and Iran-aligned armed groups joined the fighting in Lebanon and Yemen, CNA reported.

Trump told reporters the US had "one or two sites" left to hit, naming Pickaxe Mountain, a suspected underground nuclear complex. He repeated the threat at a campaign rally in Iowa ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections, saying he may have to give Tehran "the hammer" at an unspecified time.

Revolutionary Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebbi said that "in a conflict with America, there are no geographical limitations", echoing a written message issued a day earlier by Iran's new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran "remains prepared for both defence and diplomacy", according to the official IRNA news agency, urging the other side to "exercise rationality and choose diplomacy".

Behind the rhetoric, back-channels remain open. Iran's security chief Mohsen Rezaei disclosed on Saturday that he had received a letter from US Vice President JD Vance seeking to revive talks, noting what he called a positive change in tone while saying he had yet to respond. Axios, cited by France 24, reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressed Trump in a Saturday call to strike immediately after the midterms, while Trump preferred to let negotiations play out. Gulf states have been pushing a multipart deal to avert a return to war.

The next marker is Tuesday's US midterm vote. Both the timing of any strike decision and Tehran's formal reply to the Vance letter are expected to follow it, which will show whether the diplomatic track or the military one moves first.