Direct warfare with the US is out of the question for Iran, analysts say — here’s why

"The U.S. has a stronger advantage in conventional warfare. Navy to navy, army to army, air force to air force, there is no battle there and I think the Iranians know it," said Aniseh Tabrizi, a Middle East research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London. "That is why if there is any scenario in which an escalation would take place, they would go through non-conventional warfare."