A top Russian lawmaker has said that the US was “clearly unprepared” militarily for a war on Iran, because it relied on the “misguided belief” that force could quickly achieve results, Al Jazeera reports.

Alexey Pushkov, chairman of the information policy commission of Russia’s Federation Council, told the TASS news agency the US approach could have been influenced by its experience in Venezuela.

“The kidnapping of (Venezuelan President Nicolas) Maduro and the very, I would say, weak reaction to it from the Venezuelans … convinced (Trump) that a precise surgical military operation is a good tool for forcing a foreign regime to behave as the Americans please,” the senator said. “After this, Trump apparently decided that something similar could be done in Iran.”

Pushkov added that Iran, on the other hand, had prepared well for a conflict with the US, moving “virtually all of their missile facilities underground, where they are extremely difficult to reach” and building up a missile and drone arsenal numbering in the tens of thousands.