• US president says he still has ‘one or two targets’ in mind
• Iran, Qatari mediators hold third day of talks to reopen Hormuz within two days of a potential deal with Washington
• UAE hopes for breakthrough, but says region is also preparing for the worst
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 he still had to “take care” of one or two targets.
Diplomatic efforts to end the Middle East war have been punctuated by repeated threats from the US and Israel to resume bombardments as they hold crucial elections.
Iranian negotiators were in Doha on Sunday for a third consecutive day of talks with Qatari mediators aimed at pushing for a deal to end the US-Israeli war on Iran, an official briefed on the discussions told Reuters.
“A potential future war could last longer than previous conflict, and the American president would not be in a position to dictate the timing or the conditions of its conclusion,” said army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia, according to Iranian state television.
In the most intense phase of the war, which began on Feb 28 with US-Israeli strikes on Iran, Tehran retaliated with missile and drone attacks across the region. Iran-aligned armed groups joined the fighting in Lebanon and Yemen.
Akraminia’s remarks followed Trump’s suggestion that the US could swiftly strike its remaining targets in Iran.
Trump said the United States was not in a hurry to take offensive action because it had already decimated Iran’s military and nuclear programme.
“We’ve knocked out their nuclear. We still have to take care of, I would say one or two sites, but we can do that in 10 minutes,” Trump told reporters at his Florida residence.
“You probably could look at Pickaxe Mountain, and you have to take care of that. We can do that all very quickly,” he added, referring to a suspected underground nuclear complex.
Top military and political officials in Iran have warned against any new attack.
Revolutionary Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebbi on Sunday echoed a warning issued a day earlier in a written message by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
“In a conflict with America, there are no geographical limitations; a vast theatre has been defined for inflicting damage upon the enemy,” Mohebbi said, according to state television.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said “we hope the other side will exercise rationality and choose diplomacy”, adding that Iran “remains prepared for both defence and diplomacy”, according to the official IRNA news agency.
The warnings came as 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.
Rezaei noted what he described as a positive change in “tone” from the US side but said he had yet to respond.
He said Tehran had previously told Washington that unless its conditions were met, “neither would the Strait of Hormuz be reopened nor would there be any negotiations”.
Those conditions include unfreezing Iranian assets abroad, ending the months-long US naval blockade of Iranian ports, lifting long-standing sanctions and ending the war on all fronts.
Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the Emirati president, said on Sunday that the United Arab Emirates hoped the exchanges would yield a breakthrough but was preparing for the worst.
“We’re hoping that there is a diplomatic breakthrough,” he told a conference in Manama. “It is not in the interest of the region to go through another round... But I think we’re also, as we’ve shown before, braced for the worst.”
Iran, Qatari mediators
Speaking to state media, Iran’s Foreign Minister Araghchi said discussions on a “two-day proposal” were continuing, but that no final conclusion had been reached.
Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera quoted Araghchi as saying in an interview on Saturday that Iranian and Qatari negotiators had developed a proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within two days of a potential agreement with Washington.
“We are doing our best in this process, and we hope that there is rationality on the other side so that they prioritise diplomacy over other paths,” Araghchi said of the talks with Qatari officials.
Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2026
