IRGC says oil blockade will continue, FM rejects Trump’s claim war could be over ‘soon’ and asserts US and Israel failed to meet aims; Tehran continues to lob missiles at neighbors

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tuesday his country would keep fighting as long as necessary, casting doubt on US President Donald Trump’s insistence the previous day that the conflict would be over “soon.”

And the Islamic Republic’s security chief, Ali Larijani, dismissed Trump’s “empty” threats, insisting that the people of Iran did not fear them.

“Even those greater than you could not eliminate the Iranian nation,” Larijani warned Trump on X. “Watch out for yourself — lest you be eliminated.”

The remarks from Araghchi, who also ruled out negotiations with Washington, came as Tehran launched a new wave of attacks on US-allied Gulf nations, hours after Trump’s assurances of a swift end to the rapidly widening conflict.

Trump’s comments helped reverse the stock market slumps and oil price jumps of a day earlier, with markets in Tokyo and Seoul opening strongly, and oil prices down as much as five percent, a day after benchmark crude rocketed past $100 a barrel.

“It’s going to be ended soon, and if it starts up again they’ll be hit even harder,” Trump told a news conference in Florida on Monday, after telling lawmakers that the campaign would be a “short-term excursion.”

“We’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough,” Trump said.

He threatened an attack of “incalculable” size if Tehran blocks oil supplies.

“We will hit them so hard that it will not be possible for them or anybody else helping them to ever recover that section of the world, if they do anything.”

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