The Biden administration doesn’t want a direct war with Iran, Ednews informs citing an article on Politico.

But then national security adviser Jake Sullivan went on multiple Sunday shows and was asked repeatedly whether the US had ruled out strikes inside Iran. He didn't, but his language indicated he just declined to answer the question, the article says.

"Sitting here today on a national news program, I'm not going to get into what we've ruled in and ruled out from the point of view of military action," Sullivan said on NBC News' "Meet the Press." He offered a nearly word-for-word response on CNN's "State of the Union."

NatSec Daily spoke to two senior administration officials who said Sullivan's intention wasn't to slyly signal attacking Iran proper was on the table. Rather, as one of the officials said, "we just don’t want to speak to future potential operations."

It’s unclear if President Joe Biden's aides presented him with options to attack sovereign Iranian territory, according to the article on Politico.

"What we do know, based on what a third senior official told us last week, is that hitting Iran directly isn't part of any planned retributive strikes," Politico says.