Iranian officials say Trump is planning a new military attack or harsher sanctions

Senior Iranian officials believe the United States is planning new military strikes or increasingly tight economic control that will push Tehran to retaliate, according to The Guardian. Mehdi Mohammadi, the advisor to Iran's chief negotiator in talks with the United States, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, stated on his Telegram channel that the Americans had proposed a deadline of approximately two weeks, after which President Donald Trump would make a decision on military action. Mohammadi, considered a reliable indicator of Qalibaf's thinking, cast doubt on the US leader's claim that the military option was off the table, as he noted this Monday when he said that for now he ruled out escalating the conflict, having destroyed Tehran's naval and air capabilities. The Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf. Photo: Europa Press/Contact/Bilal Jawich - File. However, the Iranian advisor asserted on social media that Washington was preparing for a limited attack and that Iran was already planning a response. Furthermore, Mohammadi claimed that if US sanctions continued, a comprehensive preventive war would be necessary "to increase the cost of sanctions for the enemy." Likewise, Qalibaf's advisor described the US response to Iran's latest proposals for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz as "not only unsatisfactory, but completely deceptive." "They don't want to release the frozen funds," he said, before adding: "They don't want to lift the sanctions or stop the war in Lebanon." He also revealed that Tehran had rejected a request from US Vice President JD Vance for a direct meeting with its negotiators before giving a response to Tehran's conditions for lifting the blockade of the strait, as reported by The Guardian. For now, Trump decided to bet on a strategy of suffocating Iran through economic pressure and tightening the blockade of its oil exports, while facilitating those of other Gulf states through the Strait of Hormuz. The President of the United States, Donald Trump. Photo: @WhiteHouse on X. Mohammadi's assessments also suggest that some senior Iranian officials fear that Washington's strategy will work by destabilizing the country. According to the British newspaper, they believe economic instability could trigger street protests, possibly coinciding with the anniversary of the national demonstrations that began at the end of December last year. On this same basis, Iran's leaders might conclude that the status quo —a "neither peace nor war" stalemate— was unsustainable and that preventive measures were required. Moreover, despite Iranian claims that their blockade of the strait is working, there is concern over the low price of Brent crude, at US$93 per barrel, while Saudi oil production stands near pre-war levels, at 9.3 million barrels per day. On the other hand, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, declared that he had communicated to Russia that Iran was not prepared to let a single particle of its highly enriched uranium reserves leave the country, arguing that it could be needed for the nuclear-powered submarines it plans to build. Another senior official, Mohammad Mokhber, advisor to Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, warned Europe that any complicity in the American blockade would be "an act of war that will be engraved in the historical memory of the nation." Likewise, Tehran has made it increasingly clear that US bases in Europe will be targets of attacks if fighting resumes. On this, Rezaei declared that "if American aircraft take off from a distant military base and come to this country to bomb Iran, we will also attack that base. We are announcing this now so that they have no excuse tomorrow." It should be added that Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, suggested this week that the economic strangulation policy was sufficient and described Iran's demands as unrealistic. However, Trump is under pressure to resolve the crisis before the Democrats take control of Congress on January 3. Especially since a Reuters Ipsos poll in the US shows that 71% of Americans want Congress to pass a law to end the war in Iran, and that the prevailing message of the midterm elections was that the conflict was highly unpopular. But as The Guardian noted, the Democrats lack a strategy to end the confrontation and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which carries the risk of leaving the political initiative in the hands of the White House and an increasingly intransigent Iranian leadership.