The United States has given up the military option against Iran, a senior Revolutionary Guard official was quoted as saying by local media on Friday.

Gen. Hossein Daqiqi (Daghighi), top advisor to IRGC’s chief commander, during a speech Thursday evening said that the US not only has given up on the military option but might also relinquish sanctions and economic pressure soon against the Islamic Republic.

“The military option has been taken off the table by the Americans, but economic and cultural pressures are still active, although the economic option is also on its way out,” Daqiqi said, “because they believe that sanctions have not been effective.”

The IRGC official also said that “If a country has all the military hardware in the world, but its leader is a coward like Trump, it won’t be able to accomplish anything.” He added that in contrast, Islamic Republic’s leader Ali Khamenei ordered a missile strike against US bases in Iraq after the killing of IRGC’s Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad by a US air strike.

US President Joe Biden and his senior officials have reiterated several times in recent months that all options are on the table not to allow Tehran to possess nuclear weapons, and they have designated more companies and individuals for violating US sanctions.

Congressional and other critics of President Biden’s Iran policy say the administration has not rigorously implemented oil export sanctions imposed by former President Donald Trump when he withdrew from the JCPOA nuclear deal in 2018.

Iran began to increase clandestine oil shipments to China at the end of 2020 as Biden won the presidential election and signaled his readiness to overturn Trump’s decision and revive the JCPOA.