Iranian Adviser Says US Proposed Two-Week Window Before Possible Military Action
Mehdi Mohammadi, an adviser to Iran's chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has said the United States proposed a timeframe of about two weeks, after which US President Donald Trump would decide whether to take military action against Iran. The Guardian reported his remarks on November 11, 2026.
Mohammadi also claimed that Washington was preparing a limited strike on Iran and that Iran was already preparing a response. He said that if US sanctions, which are economic penalties imposed by one country on another, continued, Iran would need a comprehensive pre-emptive war to raise the cost of those sanctions for its opponent. These are his claims.
Senior Iranian officials believe the United States is planning either further military strikes or tighter economic pressure, with the aim of pushing Tehran toward retaliatory action. Iran has itself described one recent incident. It said it bombed a US radar post on the Omani island of Didamar three days before November 11.
On diplomacy, Iran rejected a request from US Vice President JD Vance for a direct meeting with Iranian negotiators. Tehran said it would respond to the request only after addressing its own conditions on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.
Iran's nuclear material has also been raised. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's national security council, said Iran had told Russia that none of its highly enriched uranium stockpile would leave the country.
Warnings also came from Tehran to Europe. Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, warned Europe that complicity in the US blockade would be an act of war.
Public opinion in the United States is also part of the picture. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 71% of Americans want Congress to pass legislation to end the war in Iran.
