Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has warned that Israel is seeking to drag the United States into an endless war with Iran, saying no American president would be able to escape it.

In a post on X on Monday, Ghalibaf wrote: “Israelis are working overtime to drag the US into an endless war with Iran, a quagmire that no president, now or in the future, Republican or Democrat, could escape.”

He added a sharper warning, saying: “Unless Washington drops the ‘Israel First’ mindset, America and its allies are headed straight for a dark age.”

A warning as talks hang in the balance

Ghalibaf is Iran's parliament speaker and has been described in reports as handling strategic matters for Tehran, including its dealings with Washington. His warning came as the two sides remain locked in a confrontation that has already seen months of fighting this year.

The United States and Israel opened the war on Iran on 28 February, and a ceasefire was reached in April, but fighting flared again in July after diplomatic efforts to end the conflict broke down.

President Donald Trump indicated on Monday that the United States was unlikely to restart major military operations against Iran, saying he was satisfied that negotiations were making progress and that there was little need for now for an extensive new attack. He has also said the war is “effectively over” following talks in Qatar.

Seven conditions and a stalled process

Tehran's position has hardened in public in recent days. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, has demanded that the United States accept Iran's seven conditions for ending the conflict, and has rejected Trump's assertion that Tehran is engaged in negotiations with Washington.

Iran has defended a proposal to restart peace talks in as few as two days as the most reasonable offer on the table, after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called some of Iran's conditions “outrageous and ridiculous”.

Iran has also said it is not obliged to submit to full nuclear monitoring while under threat of US military attacks, hardening its position against international inspectors.

Why Ghalibaf's message matters

Ghalibaf's intervention frames the dispute as a trap set for Washington rather than a conflict Tehran seeks. By addressing the American public and both political parties directly, he is arguing that a new round of war would serve Israel's interests, not those of the United States.

His language echoes a theme he has returned to repeatedly in recent weeks, using social media to challenge Washington's handling of the conflict and to argue that American voters rejected further war.

Whether his warning changes anything in Washington is unclear. The talks remain fragile, the ceasefire has not held in full, and the United States continues to enforce a naval blockade of Iran's ports. For now, Ghalibaf's message adds a public Iranian voice to a debate in Washington over whether diplomacy or further military pressure is the way forward.