Iran’s top security official struck a defiant tone on Monday, berating President Trump for harboring “delusional fantasies” about the toll of a broadening war that has already impacted more than a half dozen countries across the Middle East.
The official, Ali Larijani, denied news reports that Iran’s new leaders are seeking to negotiate with Washington.
“Trump plunged the region into chaos with his “delusional fantasies” and now fears more American troop casualties,” Mr. Larijani wrote in a string of fiery posts on social media platform X. “Iran, unlike the United States, has prepared itself for a long war.”
He accused Mr. Trump of getting into a war that harmed U.S. interests and served the aims of Israel, which has been striking hard at regional enemies ever since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel.
“TRUMP HAS BETRAYED “AMERICA FIRST” TO ADOPT “ISRAEL FIRST,” he said in another post, mimicking Mr. Trump’s own style of social media posts in all capital letters. “It is indeed very sad that he is sacrificing American treasure and blood to advance Netanyahu’s illegitimate expansionist ambitions,” he added.
Mr. Larijani, the head of the National Security Council, was a trusted confidant of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the opening salvos of the U.S.-Israeli attack on Saturday. Mr. Larijani, 67, was said by some Iranian officials to have been effectively running the country behind the scenes in the lead-up to the war.
In January, Mr. Larijani was sanctioned by Washington over his leading role in the deadly crackdown on nationwide protests against the government. He oversaw the most recent U.S.-Iranian nuclear negotiations, which abruptly ended when the United States and Israel launched their joint attack on Iran on Saturday.
The U.S. and Israel have struck more than 2,000 targets in Iran since then, including military bases and weaponry, while Iran has retaliated with barrages of missiles and drones that have hit Israel, an array of Gulf Arab states, neighboring Iraq, Cyprus and a strategic waterway.
Mr. Larijani has been seen as a pragmatist who might be willing to strike a deal with Washington. But on Monday, he reposted a summary of a Wall Street Journal article that said he had proposed resuming talks with the comment: “We will not negotiate with the United States.”
Mr. Trump’s “wishful thinking” would drag the entire region into an unnecessary war, he said in his social media posts, adding that the American president “is rightly worried about more American casualties.”
The post Top Iranian Security Official Calls Trump War Aims ‘Delusional’ appeared first on New York Times.
