Iranian President Hassan Rouhani claimed that President Trump is unlikely to engage in a war with the country because of the forthcoming presidential election in the United States.
Speaking at a news conference on Sunday, Rouhani said that war with Iran would “ruin” Trump’s chances of being reelected in November. He also pointed out the harm a war would cause to not only the U.S. but also to American interests and allies in the Middle East region.
“I think the Americans aren’t after war since they know what harm it could do them,” Rouhani said.
The Iranian leader also said that the American effort to sanction the county under a “maximum pressure” campaign has been a failure and urged the U.S. to rejoin the 2015 nuclear agreement, which the U.S. has withdrawn from and Iran has violated.
“Of course, sanctions naturally create some problems, but they will not yield any results for the enemies. Maximum pressure has failed. We are in a better situation in the region now,” Rouhani said.
The remarks come a week after Mohsen Rezaee, a top adviser to leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that Iran was searching for an excuse to attack Israel.
“We would raze Tel Aviv to the ground for sure. We have been looking for such a pretext,” Rezaee said. “If they do something, we can use it as a pretext to attack Israel.”
Tensions between the U.S. and Iran peaked in January when the U.S. killed Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani, who was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans, in a coordinated Baghdad drone strike.
Soleimani, who led Iran’s elite Quds force, was killed along with Iranian-backed Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al Muhandis. Iran retaliated for the strike by firing ballistic missiles at Iraqi military bases housing American forces.
