In a Wednesday interview with Reuters, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif stated he does not think US President Donald Trump wants war with Iran, but added that this “doesn’t exclude him being basically lured into one.” He said that people like national security adviser John Bolton and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might achieve such a feat.
According to Zarif, the people behind the Trump administration’s current policy of tightening sanctions on Iran “do not simply want a negotiated solution.” While he said that Iran does not want war with the US, he stressed that the country “will not escape defending itself.”
Tensions between the US and Iran have dramatically increased since Trump pulled his country out of the Iran nuclear deal last year and reimposed sanctions on the country. The US recently increased sanctions and designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a foreign terrorist organization. In response, Iran this week labeled the US army as “terrorist.”
Read more: Iran’s Zarif believes Trump does not want war, but could be lured into conflict
