TEHRAN – The Americans are well aware that any act of aggression against Iran will set the entire region aflame, Mohsen Rezaee, secretary of the Expediency Council, said on Saturday.

“They know that Iran’s military power has reached a level that if they wished to conduct the slightest act [against Iran], the entire region would catch fire and there would be nothing left for America’s friends and Israel and their interests in the region,” Rezaee said in an interview on state TV.

He further said the Trump administration has announced it has waged an “economic war” on Iran and is not seeking a war against Iran, “because they are not able to.”

“If they were able to, they would have done this already,” added Rezaee, the former commander of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps.

Rezaee further denounced the United States for imposing fresh sanctions on Iran’s petrochemical industry, asserting that the U.S. policy of maximum pressure, which has repeatedly been tested by former presidents, is a failure.

On Friday, the United States imposed new sanctions on Iran that target the Islamic Republic’s petrochemical industry, including its largest petrochemical holding group, the Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran have been rising since President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 nuclear pact and imposed unilateral economic sanctions against Iran, mainly targeting its energy dealings on the global market.

In early May, the Trump administration beefed up the U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf, citing alleged and unspecified threats posed by the Islamic Republic to American troops and interests.

The U.S. recent deployment of an aircraft carrier, B-52 bombers and Patriot missiles to the Middle East has raised fears that the Trump administration was contemplating military aggression against Iran.

Iran has insisted that it will not initiate any conflict, but will firmly defend the country against any act of aggression.

MH/PA