Senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps adviser Mohammad Reza Naqdi said Iran could seek to drag out its conflict with the United States until President Donald Trump leaves office, arguing that a prolonged war could impose enough costs to deter future attacks.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A senior adviser to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has raised the possibility of deliberately prolonging the war with the United States until President Donald Trump is no longer in office, describing attrition as one potential strategy for deterring Washington and other adversaries from attacking Iran in the future.
Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the top adviser to the commander of the IRGC, outlined the strategy during a rare interview with PBS on Tuesday, arguing that Tehran must emerge from the conflict having established sufficient deterrence to prevent another attack.
“We have to attain deterrence so that the enemy never dares to attack us, so we can live with security,” Naqdi told PBS. “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.”
His comments indicate that at least one senior figure within the IRGC is considering the duration of Trump’s presidency as part of Iran’s strategic calculations in the continuing conflict.
Rather than describing a rapid military resolution as Tehran’s only objective, Naqdi presented a prolonged war of attrition as one possible means of raising the costs imposed on the United States and demonstrating the consequences of attacking Iran.
Naqdi also disputed the premise that Washington has achieved its principal goals in the war, instead asserting that Iran has already prevailed on the issues he characterized as America’s two central objectives.
“Certainly, victory is on our side, after the defeat of America’s two main objectives, the toppling of the leadership and the breaking up of Iran,” Naqdi said.
He portrayed U.S. strategy as inconsistent and repeatedly changing during the conflict, claiming Washington had moved from one proposed objective to another without achieving decisive results.
“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 added.
Naqdi’s remarks offer a rare public indication of how a senior IRGC figure views the political timetable surrounding the war.
His suggestion that Iran could continue fighting until the next U.S. presidential term frames attrition not simply as a battlefield tactic but as a means of testing Washington’s willingness to sustain the conflict over an extended period.
At the same time, Naqdi characterized Iran’s broader objective as establishing deterrence strong enough that future U.S. administrations or other adversaries would conclude that attacking the country carries unacceptable costs.
His comments also reflect Tehran’s public insistence that the conflict has failed to accomplish what Iranian leaders describe as Washington’s larger strategic aims. Naqdi specifically cited the survival of Iran’s leadership and the continued territorial and political integrity of the country as evidence for his declaration that “victory is on our side.”
The senior IRGC adviser’s remarks suggest that Tehran may be weighing a strategy extending well beyond immediate military operations, with the duration of Trump’s remaining time in office potentially becoming one factor in Iran’s calculations over how long it is prepared to continue the war.
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