Top Iranian security official Ali Larijani on Thursday issued a sharp warning to US President Donald Trump, saying Trump will not be able to end the war with Tehran as easily as it started it.
Larijani, who is the Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said the United States would have to face the consequences for starting the war and insisted Iran would not back down until Washington acknowledges its mistake.
“Trump has said we must win this war quickly. But starting wars is an easy matter, whereas ending them does not happen with a few tweets. We will not leave you until you admit your mistake and pay its price.,” Larijani wrote in a post on X.
His remarks came after Trump repeated his claim that the US must win the war quickly and suggested the conflict could end soon.
Earlier in a phone interview with CBS News, the US president said the war with Iran was close to being over.
“I think the war is very complete, pretty much,” Trump said, speaking from his Doral, Florida, golf club. “[Iran has] no navy, no communications, they've got no air force. Their missiles are down to a scatter. Their drones are being blown up all over the place, including their manufacturing of drones.”
The US military has said it struck more than 3,000 Iranian targets during the first week of operations.
“If you look, they have nothing left. There's nothing left in a military sense,” Trump said.
However, Iranian officials have rejected the US narrative and warned that Tehran will continue to resist what it calls aggression until the United States is held accountable for starting the conflict.
Earlier in the day, Iran's new supreme leader released his first statement on Thursday and said that Iran would keep up its attacks on its Gulf Arab neighbours and use the effective closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz as leverage against the United States and Israel.
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