Hassan Rouhani: The mistake of the decision-makers was that they considered a U.S. and Israeli attack on the country to be improbable.

The former President of the 11th and 12th administrations:

One discussion was that—fundamentally, in the future, as these debates date back to ten or fifteen years ago—under what circumstances might the U.S. attack us? Is it possible for Israel to attack us under certain conditions?

There were expert friends who argued that it is impossible for Israel to attack us. They provided reasons, saying that if Israel attacks us, it knows it will be destroyed and annihilated within a few days. [They also argued] the U.S. will not attack us because it knows that if it does, within a few days or weeks, one hundred thousand Americans stationed in various bases across the region will be killed, and it would have to carry away tens of thousands of corpses. Therefore, they will not attack us.

I know those dear individuals were trustworthy people, and they engaged in this decision-making based on specific thinking and calculations, reporting them to higher officials; however, I was never convinced by their arguments. I always made it clear to them that your words are not correct.

We must strengthen ourselves and should not be optimistic about these inaccurate calculations, sitting idly and unconcerned, claiming our country is perfectly safe and secure and that no problems will ever arise for us.