Iran is ready for a long war with the US and only economic pain will end it, senior official tells CNN

A top Iranian official has warned that the government is prepared for a long war with the US and signaled that it is willing to continue attacking Gulf countries in an effort to persuade them to convince Donald Trump to step back from the conflict.

The warning came in an exclusive CNN interview in Tehran with Kamal Kharazi, foreign policy adviser to the office of the Supreme Leader, who ruled out diplomacy for now and said the war would only end through economic pain – signaling a hardening of the government’s stance on day 10 of the conflict.

“I don’t see any room for diplomacy anymore. Because Donald Trump had been deceiving others and not keeping with his promises, and we experienced this in two times of negotiations – that while we were engaged in negotiation, they struck us,” Kharazi told CNN on Monday.