Iran tells Americans Trump's war has failed as rial sinks to record low

Iran's Revolutionary Guard has told the American public that President Donald Trump's war against Iran has failed, in an unusually direct appeal from Tehran to US voters just weeks before the November 3 midterm elections.

At a news conference in Tehran on Tuesday, Guard spokesman Gen. Hossein Mohebbi read from what he called a "letter to the American people", saying the only way for the war to end is for Washington to admit defeat and leave. In remarks to The Associated Press afterwards, he urged Americans to reconsider their leadership and take to the streets to protest what he called the US government's warmongering policies.

Mohebbi accused the United States of using Iran's nuclear programme as a ruse to "plunder Iran's wealth" and turn the country "back into a colony", insisting that military action and sanctions would not force Tehran to submit.

The message landed as Iran's economy buckled further. The rial fell to a new record low on Tuesday, with traders in Tehran exchanging more than 2.5 million rials to the US dollar — just 27 days after the previous record of 2.2 million on September 2. The currency has repeatedly hit new lows since the war began in February, battered by a US naval blockade on Iranian oil and successive rounds of sanctions.

Washington pressed ahead with economic warfare: the Treasury Department on Tuesday sanctioned 10 individuals and entities in Iran, Hong Kong and Pakistan accused of procuring weapons and weapons components for Iran, part of what the administration calls "Operation Economic Outcast". Diplomacy remains in limbo — Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said indirect talks with the US on reopening the Strait of Hormuz had become "more serious", with Qatari mediators expected to engage Washington, while Trump said he had rejected an Iranian peace proposal relayed through Qatar.