WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) — A top Iranian official warns that 10,000 Israelis will die if the Jewish state attacks the Islamic Republic.

Mohsen Rezai, a senior member of Iran’s Expediency Council, made the comments on the regime’s Press TV.

“If they attack, Iran’s deterrent power would deal a mortal blow to them and the Israeli death rate would not be less than 10,000,” Rezai said, according to The Times of Israel.

The former Revolutionary Guard commander claims that Iran doesn’t want to go to war and that its ready to defend itself from an attack.

Rezai even commented on the upcoming U.S. presidential election, saying that Israel is only threatening to attack Iran “to win concessions from the next U.S. president,” according to The Times of Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that a military option should be on the table in order to stop the Tehran regime from pursuing a nuclear weapon.

The Institute for Science and International Security, a respected think tank, said in a report Monday that Iran is two to four months away from producing enough weapons-grade uranium to develop a nuclear bomb, but still faces challenges and delays to make it functional.

“Despite work it may have done in the past,” Iran would need “many additional months to manufacture a nuclear device suitable for underground testing and even longer to make a reliable warhead for a ballistic missile,” the report said, according to The Associated Press.

The White House has previously stated that President Barack Obama and Netanyahu are in “full agreement” in keeping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly said that the country’s nuclear technology is only for peaceful purposes.

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