Reuters news agency quotes published remarks by Yahya Rahim Safavi, an adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a commander of the Iranian Revolution Guards Corps, as saying he did not expect a U.S. attack because the United States is bogged down in Iraq.
U.S. officials, at odds with Tehran over its nuclear program, have said they are pursuing diplomacy with Iran, but refuse to rule out military action.
Meanwhile today, Iran has closed major border crossings with northern Iraq to protest the U.S. detention of an Iranian official accused by the military of weapons smuggling.
AP quotes a Kurdish official in Iraq, Dana Ahmed Majeed, the leader of the Al-Sulaymaniyah governorate, as saying at least four border crossings have been closed.
The move comes days after U.S. troops arrested an Iranian in Al-Sulaymaniyah, accusing him of being a member of the elite Quds force of the Revolution Guards Corps.
(AP, AFP, Reuters)