Cooler heads among the US population and the army will not allow hardliners to steer the country into an open war with Iran, a senior military official in Tehran said amid growing tensions in the Persian Gulf.

“We believe rational Americans and their experienced commanders will not let their radical elements lead them into a situation from which it would be very difficult to get out, and that is why they will not enter a war,” Brigadier General Hassan Seifi, an assistant to the nation’s army chief, told Mehr News Agency on Saturday.

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The defense official said that throughout the years the US “was able to accurately assess the strength of our armed forces,” and for that reason has never tried to attack Iran directly.

He added that Washington will not wage an open war against Tehran because its army will inflict great losses on the American troops and deliver a blow to Washington’s “international prestige.”

The US earlier deployed three guided-missile destroyers, the USS Mason, USS McFaul, and USS Gonzalez, to the Persian Gulf. They joined the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, currently operating off the coast of Oman, near the Gulf. This military buildup near Iranian waters coincided with reports of the Pentagon mulling sending more troops to Iraq, which borders Iran.

Relations between Iran and the US deteriorated dramatically after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the nation from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program last year and re-imposed sanctions. The move was slammed by a number of countries, including Washington’s closest allies.

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