TEHRAN – The tone of the enemy toward Iran has sharply escalated again, with senior American and Israeli officials openly speaking of finishing the job and some analysts warning a new round of war is near, while Iranian political and military officials say the country is fully ready for a severe and unrestricted response.
An informed Iranian source told Press TV that Iran has prepared for an all-out, multi-layered and comprehensive war. According to the source, Tehran has made a firm decision that in reaction to any aggression, assassination and terror, it will respond without any limitation or restraint and will crush with full force the accessible interests and targets of the aggressors and their supporters in the region.
From Tehran’s point of view, the source said, the US will not launch an attack without Israel, nor Israel without the US, and talk of their independence from each other in a war against Iran resembles a bitter joke. The explicit threats by American officials and the Zionist regime to attack Iran, the source added, have provided the legal and moral license for Iran to adopt necessary defensive measures.
“We will soon finish the job”
On Sunday, US President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that Iran had been “systematically destroyed, both militarily and financially, and unless they change their ways, rapidly, we will soon finish the job.”
In the same post, Trump gave his “complete and total endorsement” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of Israel’s October 27 parliamentary election, suggesting Washington could take on the fight itself if Netanyahu failed to stay in power: with the “wrong Leader” in Israel, “America will have to do this work ourselves.”
Trump did not specify what action he had in mind. Earlier this month he had said the US would not attack Iran before the November 3 US midterm elections and had spoken of “productive discussions.” His latest comments came after he and Netanyahu discussed a possible new military operation, according to Axios, which reported last week that Netanyahu raised intelligence suggesting Tehran was rebuilding its nuclear program. Trump has also raised the possibility of striking the underground Pickaxe Mountain complex near Natanz.
At a campaign rally in Kansas on Monday, Trump said the US was in a position to walk away from the war now, describing Iran as devastated and adding: “They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon.”
Netanyahu matched the tone. In a briefing with Israeli journalists on Sunday, he declared that bringing down the Islamic Republic remained a key objective and that he had directed all security agencies to pursue it: “We must bring this regime down once and for all.”
Presenting an updated security doctrine, he said, as reported by Israel Hayom: “The objectives I set do not depend on American approval. To the extent necessary, we will also act independently. We have done so before, and if necessary, we will do so again. We are prepared to take the initiative. We must prevent the enemy from delivering the first blow.”
He described confronting Iran as his “life’s mission,” claimed “90% of the job is done” by pointing to economic pressure and protests, and responded to Trump’s endorsement with: “Together we will complete the mission!” In a video of a phone call released Monday, he told Trump: “Donald, we have a job to finish, you said it, and we’ll finish it together.”
In an interview with Fox News on October 18, Netanyahu warned Iran is developing intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching US cities and seeking nuclear warheads, saying: “You are the real target.” He listed as his first priority if reelected: “First, we will achieve the complete elimination of the Iranian threat to Israel, to America, and to the entire world.”
Unannounced visit and election countdown
The rhetoric moved with military signals. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth paid an unannounced visit to Israel on Monday, October 19, meeting Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz at Ovda Air Base in the Negev. Spokesman Doron Spielman said they discussed “the threats in the region” and offensive-defensive cooperation. The Pentagon gave no details.
On Tuesday, Hegseth told US troops in the Central Command area: “I got to see some of our warfighters — they’re preparing and ready to ensure that Iran never has a nuclear weapon,” adding they were “ready to go.”
Israel canceled soldiers’ leave from Thursday ahead of the vote. Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said forces were on “a high level of alertness and readiness” against “external interference.” Netanyahu told i24NEWS on Tuesday that Iran and its proxies could try to disrupt the October 27 election.
“Either a deal or an attack”
The Financial Times reported on Wednesday, October 21, citing a person familiar with Israeli planning, that renewed US-Israeli strikes in the coming weeks are “not an unreasonable scenario.” Three sources said Netanyahu urged the military earlier this month to prepare a multi-day offensive including nuclear sites, planned for the weekend of October 10, which did not proceed after Trump opposed action before the US midterms. One source said: “There will either be a deal or an attack.”
White House deputy spokesperson Anna Kelly told the FT the US “will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the midterm elections.” The New York Times quoted Raz Zimmt of Tel Aviv’s INSS as saying: “The baseline expectation in Iran, and in Israel, is that it’s a matter of when the war restarts, not if.” He added a strike alone would likely not achieve Washington’s goals but might give Trump “an image of victory and a way out.”
Ready for war, ready for diplomacy
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iraq’s Al-Ekhbariya chanel that Iran entered three rounds of talks and all three led to war. “We were in the midst of negotiations and in the end it was proven that the Americans cannot be trusted. In the third round, we reached an understanding with Trump, but Trump himself violated it and adhered to it for only two weeks.”
After more than eight months, Washington has achieved none of its objectives, he said, calling that a strategic failure for the US and a strategic success for Iran. America is now in a deep quagmire, resorting to military threats, sanctions and pressure on neighbors not to cooperate with Tehran, without result. “Iran will never surrender, neither to sanctions nor to military threats. The only solution is diplomacy and a negotiated solution.”
“Every possibility exists, including that the Americans and the Zionist regime will start another war. But we are in full readiness. We are fully prepared to defend ourselves and will stand until the last moment,” Araghchi said. “When I say we are ready for war, it does not mean we want war. It is a message to do calculations and not enter that war again. We are as ready for diplomacy as we are for war.”
The main deterrent, he argued, is that readiness: Americans know war cannot deliver their goals. In the two wars, they “fell into Israel’s trap, more precisely Netanyahu’s trap. Netanyahu will do anything for his personal goal, not for America, Israel or anyone else.”
In a Financial Times essay titled “The false assumptions about us are dangerous,” Araghchi wrote that a way forward requires Washington to accept it has “no military options.” Trump entered the war on “fundamentally erroneous assumptions,” being wrongly told Iranian forces are unprepared, despite lessons learned since 2025. “In June 2025 and February 2026, they bombed us while we were negotiating. And in June this year, shortly after an agreement was signed by Presidents Pezeshkian and Trump, we were attacked a third time. How can we trust a US president again?”
He recalled presenting a Seven-Day Plan via mediators at the UN General Assembly under which the US would do nothing it had not already agreed to: the Strait of Hormuz would reopen on Day 6, talks for a final deal on Day 7. He cited Moody’s that the war has cost US consumers $265 billion this year, about $2,000 per household, half from energy prices, plus damaged bases and equipment losses. Further escalation, he warned, would put civilian lives, regional states and the world economy at great risk and bring “even greater strategic failure.”
Defense without restraint
Armed Forces General Staff spokesman Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi replied to Trump and Netanyahu: “We tell the child-killing twins, Trump and Netanyahu: you are on the slope of decline, and with boasting you will not save yourselves from the swamp of death.”
New Defense Minister Mehrdad Akhlaghi Ketabchi, approved Sunday with 237 votes, wrote he devoted his first working hour to the IRGC Aerospace Force and Army air defense: “For us, responding to threats is not a rhetorical contest; it is turning threats into greater readiness. We are focused on our targets with new technologies; we eat dust but we will not give away soil.”
National Security Commission Chairman Ebrahim Azizi wrote on X: “Regardless of your election results, we have no doubt about your hostility. We are ready, in response to any operational mistake, to wipe you off the map.”
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei wrote Wednesday on X, reacting to the US Secretary of State’s call to condemn Iran over Persian Gulf insecurity: “In less than nine months, they attacked Iran twice in the middle of negotiations; they slaughtered our children in Minab, killed our daughters in Lamard, assassinated our leaders, and intensified sanctions; and now, after blatantly violating the understanding they signed, while claiming victory, they ask the world to condemn Iran.” The world, he said, is paying for US-Israeli law-breaking, from regional turmoil to energy insecurity. “You cannot set fires, throw the region into chaos, then stand as plaintiff and ask others to condemn the victim.”
Ball in Washington’s court
Tehran sees a deadlock not easily broken. The gap over the balance of conflict, US pressure to force submission before the midterms, Iran’s tighter control of Hormuz and action against violating vessels, oil above $110 after two tankers carrying 4 million barrels hit mines — one burning, one halted — the criticized diesel deal with Russia, and Hegseth’s secret talks with Netanyahu alongside UAE officials all point to continued tension.
While unofficial sources speak of a Pakistan-Qatar proposal, Tehran believes Trump seeks to pass the midterms, not end a costly war whose declared goals keep changing. Iran does not doubt Islamabad’s sincerity, but the ball, officials say, is in Washington’s court. Until the US abandons the illusion of forcing surrender and imposing unilateral terms, by negotiation or aggression, the conflict will not end.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: tehrantimes.com
