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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Declares Iran Will Not Go To War With The US

Tensions are heating up between the United States and Iran, but Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, says his country is not willing to go to war.

“There won’t be any war. The Iranian nation has chosen the path of resistance,” Khamenei told Iran’s state-run media. “We don’t seek war, and they don’t either. They know it’s not in their interests.”

The U.S. and Iran are in a dispute over Iran’s nuclear development program. President Donald Trump has increased sanctions on Iran, cutting off oil revenue, which is vital to Iran’s economy. Trump is hoping the sanctions will push Iran into re-negotiating its ballistic missile program. Iran’s Supreme Leader called the negotiations “poison.”

Iran is also suspected of attacking four commercial vessels owned by U.S. allies a few days ago, although the Iranian government denies the allegations.

The United Arab Emirates reported on Sunday that four commercial vessels including two Saudi oil tankers had been sabotaged offshore from the UAE emirate of Fujairah just outside the Strait of Hormuz,” Reuters reports. “U.S. national security agencies believe proxies sympathetic to or working for Iran may have been behind the attacks…Iran has rejected the allegation and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday that ‘extremist individuals’ in the U.S. government were pursuing dangerous policies, stoking a war of words with Washington over sanctions.”

Trump has warned Iran that it will “suffer greatly” if it continues to attack U.S. interests in the Middle East.