Tasnim � Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan took a swipe at US Secretary of Defense James Mattis for his recent remarks on regime change in the Islamic Republic, saying the US official "talks like a patient who has hallucinations due to high fever."

�Instead of deciding for other nations, the US defense secretary and the country�s ruling body had better care about the resolution of their own internal problems and examine the underlying causes that, most probably and in the not too distant future, will both wipe out the current US government, and bring more serious challenges for the country's political system,� Brigadier General Dehqan said on Tuesday.

��such remarks are similar to sentences that are made by patients who have hallucinations due to high fever,� the defense minister noted.

In a recent interview with the Mercer Island High School Islander, Mattis said that regime change will be necessary before the US and Iran can have substantially positive relations.

The US defense secretary claimed that any potential rapprochement would be difficult �because Iran is not really a democracy,� media reports said on Monday.

Mattis noted that Iran was his �biggest problem� while he commanded US Central Command.