Iran Guards chief says enemy focused on economic conflict

The head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said Wednesday the enemy was worried about the prospect of war and was focused instead on an economic conflict, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

Tensions between the United States and Iran have increased since Trump pulled Washington out of a nuclear deal last year and moved to bar all international sales of Iranian oil.

Last month the United States came as close as it has ever come to bombing Iran, when President Donald Trump aborted a retaliatory airstrike minutes before impact. Trump said he decided the strike, to punish Iran for shooting down a drone, would have killed too many people.

"In the military sphere, we have completely closed the path for the enemy," Major General Hossein Salami was quoted as saying.

"In the current situation it is the enemies who are worried about the outbreak of war and this worry is apparent in their physical and tactical behavior ... At the current crossroads, economic war is the main field for the enemy to confront us," he added.