Mojtaba Khamenei aide's chilling '40 years' warning surfaces amid US push for Iran deal

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 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 Irans 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 o