Iranian General Warns Return to War with U.S. Is ‘Inevitable’ Amid Stalled Talks
A top Iranian military commander said Tuesday that a renewed confrontation with the United States appears unavoidable, as diplomatic efforts to end the broader Middle East crisis remain deadlocked. Brigadier General Mohammad Jafar Asadi, deputy head of Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters, told state-aligned media that Tehran would never accept what he called Washington's demands for total surrender. “Without surrender, war is inevitable,” he said, adding that Iran still holds undisclosed capabilities in reserve.
The warning came as the White House and Tehran traded mixed signals over the status of indirect negotiations. President Donald Trump asserted on Truth Social that talks were “continuing at a rapid pace,” but Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported that the exchange of messages through mediators had stopped several days ago. A source close to the Iranian negotiating team told state media that Tehran was still reviewing the latest draft of a potential agreement and had not yet responded.
Meanwhile, the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah showed no signs of abating. Despite Trump's announcement Monday that both sides had agreed to halt fighting ahead of a new round of talks in Washington, Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants exchanged fire overnight. Hezbollah said it carried out multiple attacks on Israeli targets in southern Lebanon, while the Israeli military reported intercepting two projectiles. The Lebanese National News Agency said Israeli airstrikes killed at least eight people Tuesday, including a father and his two children.
Trump said he had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and asked him not to launch a major raid on Beirut, claiming Netanyahu “turned his troops around.” However, a U.S. official told Axios the call was tense, with Trump using expletives to rebuke Netanyahu over Israel's invasion of Lebanon. The Lebanese Embassy in Washington said Hezbollah had accepted a U.S. proposal to stop attacking Israel in exchange for Israel halting strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs.
The standoff between Iran and the United States extends beyond the battlefield. Iran's Central Bank reported that year-on-year inflation in May reached levels unseen since World War II, as the rial continues to weaken under the weight of the war and a U.S. naval blockade. The blockade, enforced by the USS Abraham Lincoln and other assets, has already redirected 122 commercial vessels, according to U.S. Central Command. The Pentagon and the State Department have insisted that any sanctions relief for Tehran would require major concessions on its nuclear program. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers that “there is no Iranian navy” and that sunken Iranian vessels will turn into fishing reefs.
On the nuclear front, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said moving Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium out of the country would be “difficult but not impossible.” Tehran is believed to have roughly 970 pounds of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity—enough for about nine nuclear bombs if further enriched. Grossi noted that the agency was not directly involved in negotiations but was in contact with both sides.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed Tuesday that 24 vessels had transited the Strait of Hormuz under its coordination in the past 24 hours, as Tehran continues to charge fees for passage. The IRGC also said it struck the MSC Sariska V cargo ship off Iraq’s coast in retaliation for a U.S. attack on an Iranian vessel. The Mediterranean Shipping Company denied any link to Israel or the U.S., affirming that all crew members were safe.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Tuesday that “nothing can justify” a prolonged Israeli occupation deep inside Lebanese territory. European shares edged higher on Tuesday, while Asian markets mostly rose as investors weighed the possibility of a diplomatic breakthrough. Oil prices, which had spiked 7 percent on Monday after Iran threatened to activate additional fronts, eased on Tuesday.
The death of Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of U.S.-Israeli strikes in late February has set the stage for a massive multi-city funeral expected to draw millions. Tehran official Mohammad Amin Tavakoli-Zadeh predicted 15 to 20 million people in the capital alone. The ceremony will also take place in Qom and Mashhad, where Khamenei is to be buried at the shrine of Imam Reza.
As the region edges closer to a wider conflagration, analysts say the combination of economic pressure, military escalation, and political intransigence leaves little room for a quick resolution. “We have not yet played all our trump cards,” General Asadi warned. For now, the prospect of renewed U.S.-Iran hostilities appears to be growing more tangible by the day.