Sri Lanka, March 9 -- A top Iranian official has warned that the government is prepared for a long war with the US and signaled that it is willing to continue attacking Gulf countries in an effort to persuade them to convince President Donald Trump to step back from the conflict.

The warning came in an exclusive CNN interview in Tehran with Kamal Kharazi, foreign policy adviser to the office of the Supreme Leader, who ruled out diplomacy for now and said the war would only end through economic pain - signaling a hardening of the government's stance on day 10 of the conflict.

"I don't see any room for diplomacy anymore," Kharazi told CNN on Monday.

"There's no room unless the economic pressure would be built up to the extent that other ...