TEHRAN – Abbasali Kadkhodaei, spokesman of the Guardian Council, has said there will be no war between Iran and the United States because Iran is much stronger than before.

“There will be no war because while the eight-year war against Iran caused damage, it secured Iran’s security against the enemy’s military aggression for years and increased our defense power a hundred times,” Kadkhodaei said in a tweet on Sunday.

The eight-year war is a reference to Saddam Hussein’s attack on Iran in 1980 that lasted until 1988.

He also referred to a tweet by Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, saying, “Richard Haass knows this well, as he said: war would bolster Iran.”

In a post on his Twitter account, Haass said, “Disagree w @TomCottonAR on war w Iran. Would not be quick, easy, or confined to Iranian territory. Iran could take war to much of region and even globally with cyber, militias, etc. Oil prices would spike. And rather than weaken regime war could bolster it.”

He was responding to U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, who said in an interview with Firing Line that if it comes to war with Iran, he is confident the United States would win, and would win swiftly. “Two strikes, the first strike and the last strike,” Cotton added.

MH/PA