Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he doesn’t expect a war with the U.S. despite the “wish” of some in the U.S. government.

“I don’t expect such a thing to happen,” Ahmadinejad told the Al Jazeera English-language television in an interview in Tehran yesterday, according to a transcript published on the president’s website today. “Yes, there are certain individuals in the U.S. administration who have such a wish but facing them are some reasonable people in that country who know this shouldn’t happen.”

Military force should not be ruled out as a response to an alleged Iranian assassination plot on U.S. soil, Michigan Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Oct. 16 on ABC’s “This Week.” Iranian officials have rejected the accusation, calling it a fabrication.