Iran warned the United States on Sunday that a possible resumption of hostilities could be protracted, following new threats from Donald Trump who still wants to "deal with" one or two sites.

"We can do this in ten minutes," said the American president, who last week had not ruled out "another little 'Epic Fury'" in reference to the name of the military offensive launched on February 28 by Washington against the Islamic Republic.

Tehran responded that this time, Donald Trump "would not be in a position to dictate either the timing or the conditions" of a cessation of hostilities. "A new war could be longer than the previous one," stated army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia.

He was referring to the most intense phase of the conflict, which killed many Iranian officials - including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei - and thousands of civilians, in nearly 40 days of Israeli-American bombing.

A ceasefire in April brought it to an end, followed by a memorandum of understanding in June, but the fragile agreement collapsed this summer and exchanges of strikes resumed, with Iran retaliating by again targeting Washington's allies in the region, from the Gulf to Jordan.

Although a lull has been observed since the beginning of September, press reports suggest a possible short and intense military campaign after the US midterm elections scheduled for Tuesday.

- Mount Kolang -

"We have neutralized their nuclear capabilities. We still have, I would say, one or two sites to deal with," the US president told reporters at his Florida residence on Saturday. "You could probably look at Pickaxe Mountain, and that needs to be dealt with. We can do all of that very quickly."

Located near the Natanz uranium enrichment site, 250 km south of Tehran, Mount Kolang is suspected by US intelligence services of housing an underground nuclear complex. Donald Trump had already threatened to bomb it at the end of July.

The Iranian government rejects these allegations, just as it denies wanting to acquire nuclear weapons, defending its right to civilian nuclear power.

Following the parliamentary elections this week in Israel, outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also spoke of "a unique historical opportunity" to "definitively eliminate the existential threat" from Iran, his sworn enemy.

- Prepared "for the worst" -

Faced with these threats, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his father in March, warned on Saturday of "an immediate, powerful and geographically unlimited response".

The ayatollah, who has remained out of the public eye since his appointment, also ordered military officials to update the list of targets to include "all types of tangible and intangible assets belonging to the American-Zionist enemy".

These warnings were reiterated on Sunday by the Minister of Defense and the Revolutionary Guards, the powerful army of the Islamic Republic.

Iran has already threatened to target data centers and artificial intelligence systems, as well as undersea cables in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, at the heart of the conflict.

While negotiations are underway under the auspices of the Qatari mediator and Iran has welcomed the "change of tone" evidenced by a letter from US Vice President JD Vance, the United Arab Emirates have said they hope for a diplomatic breakthrough.

"It is not in the interest of the region (...) to experience a new cycle of confrontation. But as we have already shown in the past, we are also ready to face the worst," stressed the diplomatic advisor to the Emirati president, Anwar Gargash, during a conference organized in Manama, the capital of Bahrain.

On the streets of Tehran, Mohadese, a 27-year-old woman employed in the health sector, tries to chase away "negative thoughts" and doesn't want to "constantly worry about what might happen."

Ebrahim, for his part, remains impassive: "We are not afraid of another war, we have been at war for 48 years," says this forty-year-old salesman, referring to the advent of the Islamic Republic in 1979.