US Does Not Seek War with Iran, Pompeo Says

Pompeo, who held talks with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the Russian city of Sochi on Tuesday, said the US "fundamentally" did not seek a conflict with Iran.

"We have also made clear to the Iranians that if American interests are attacked, we will most certainly respond in an appropriate fashion,” he added.

In a recent interview, Pompeo said the White House would welcome the opportunity to negotiate with Tehran, adding that Washington’s decision to deploy a carrier strike group to the region is not aimed at waging war against Iran.

“We’ve done all the right things to increase our security posture to the best of our ability,” Pompeo told CNBC on Sunday, “but we also want to make sure that we had deterrent forces in place, so in the event that Iran decided to come after an American interest — whether that be in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Yemen, or any place in the Middle East — we were prepared to respond to them in an appropriate way”.

“We’re not going to miscalculate: Our aim is not war, our aim is a change in the behavior of the Iranian leadership,” he said.

Last week, the US deployed warships and warplanes to the Middle East.

Tensions escalated even further after an incident with four tankers off the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, with US investigators reportedly blaming Iran.

No evidence of Iran's role has emerged and Tehran has called for an investigation.

Iran has condemned the attack as "dreadful" and a lawmaker said Iranian suspicions fell on Israel.