Iran’s top security official, who reportedly received a letter from Vice President JD Vance about resuming peace talks, warned in a resurfaced interview that wartime negotiations with Tehran could drag on for decades, and during which both sides should “be prepared to fight.”
Mohsen Rezaei, a former commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), now serves as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and acts as a key aide to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. He also helped shape Tehran’s military strategy during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War.
That eight-year conflict ended after Iran’s then-supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, accepted a U.N.-brokered cease-fire that he famously likened to drinking from a “poisoned chalice.”
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“Ceasefire means an unfinished war,” Rezaei had said of the war in a 2006 interview with the Iranian publication Baztab. An English translation of the interview is preserved by George Washington University’s National Security Archive.
Asked whether both sides would remain in their positions and begin talks, Rezaei replied: “Yes. Negotiations can take 30 to 40 years and during that time Iran and Iraq should be prepared to fight.”
Two decades after suggesting negotiations could drag on for years, Washington has reportedly been seeking talks with Rezaei, a key power player in Iran’s current military leadership.
Vance sent him a letter proposing renewed peace talks between the United States and Iran in October, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Iran said it had received a letter from Vance but had not responded, according to Iranian state media. The semi-official Tasnim News Agency said Iran was awaiting U.S. compliance with its conditions, warning that “any position that contradicts this framework is unacceptable.”
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In June, President Donald Trump had posted a warning on Truth Social that Iran had taken too long to come to terms and would “pay the price,” while on Monday, he also said that Iran wanted a deal but warned that another U.S. strike could be about five times as large as the previous.
“We could knock it out fast, or we could knock it out over a short, not a long period of time,” Trump said during a C-SPAN interview on “Washington Journal Primetime.”
“I can tell you that Iran would like to make a deal, and we’ll find out whether that’ll happen,” Trump said of the current timeframe.
Rezaei however, has continued to maintain a defiant stance toward Washington, writing on X on Nov. 9: “The war on Iran has already wrecked the US government,” he wrote before adding that “Washington flails like a desperate gambler.”
“FOLD YOUR HAND. STOP manufacturing FAKE NEWS about imaginary talks.
“Stop denying the West Asian NEW ORDER. Time to SURRENDER to the seven conditions Iran has repeatedly set out,” he said.
Following the Nov. 3 U.S. midterm elections, Rezaei also claimed Iran had defeated Washington militarily and politically.
He warned of a “devastating response” to another attack and declared it was time for Washington to “SURRENDER.”
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Rezaei also rejected reports of ongoing U.S.-Iran negotiations or any planned meeting in Qatar, accusing Washington of spreading false claims to ease economic pressure and lower oil prices. He reiterated that Tehran would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until its seven conditions were met.
Rezaei has spent more than four decades in Iran’s defense establishment. He commanded the IRGC from 1981 to 1997, overseeing operations during the Iran-Iraq War.
In the 2006 Baztab interview, Rezaei also detailed how Iranian leaders distinguished their public rhetoric from military strategy.
Although Khomeini and other Iranian officials called for “fighting till Saddam is toppled” and “until the nuisance is eradicated,” Rezaei said Tehran’s actual strategy was “fighting up to a victory.”
At the time, Iran’s battlefield gains, he suggested, were meant to strengthen Tehran’s negotiating position rather than achieve total conquest.
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“The world did not pay attention to the slogans,” Rezaei said in the interview, adding that foreign governments and intelligence agencies focused on Iranian leaders’ actions and diplomatic positions.
Rezaei also said Iran had struggled to turn battlefield gains into diplomatic victories because it lacked international alliances and influence at the United Nations.
Rezaei has since faced U.S. sanctions and international scrutiny. The Trump administration first sanctioned him Jan. 10, 2020, under an executive order targeting senior Iranian officials appointed by the supreme leader.
Rezaei had also been accused of involvement in the July 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people.
Interpol approved an Argentine request for a Red Notice against Rezaei in 2007 in connection with the bombing.