Iran is preparing for war. The Iranians fully expect that the U.S. and Israel will launch new assaults on Iran, expecting to “finish the job,” an Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put it on Sunday after Donald Trump gave him his electoral endorsement.

Gen. Mohsen Rezaei, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and personal representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, told Drop Site News in a written interview that, in the event of an attack, Iran still has the capacity to continue launching missiles and drones at various U.S. assets across the region in retaliation and that it would expand its range of targets.

“If the question is whether Iran still has the ability to continue missile and drone operations, the answer is yes,” Rezaei said. “The United States has valuable assets in the region. In the event of war, cables, data centers and artificial intelligence facilities could also come within range. If the conflict begins again, we will have a broader plan.”

A senior Iranian official told Drop Site that Tehran’s current internal intelligence assessment indicates a high likelihood that large-scale bombing may even begin before Tuesday’s Israeli elections. “Trump has sat on Iran’s proposed package for ending the war, and negotiations have stalled,” said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly. “Contrary to the show he is putting on, Trump has no clear or actionable plan for [ending] the war with Iran. This has been the cause of a diplomatic deadlock.” He warned that Iran should not be underestimated, claiming, “Should another war against Iran begin, given our knowledge of the patterns of American force deployment in the countries of the region, their casualty figures will be ten times higher.”

But there’s no diplomacy without trust. Rezaei underlined that point in a statement on X posted on Wednesday. “There will be no negotiations until the United States takes steps to build trust,” he wrote. “That process must begin with the full fulfillment of all Iran’s conditions.”

“Threats and sanctions must be removed in practice to pave the way for dialogue,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Wednesday, reported Tasnim. “One cannot continuously intensify sanctions and pressures—closing off avenues for engagement—while simultaneously speaking of negotiations,” he added. “Dialogue conducted through the language of threats and pressure is meaningless.”