WASHINGTON - US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey has warned Iranian leaders that they would suffer the consequences if they make "a gross misjudgment" of American will on preventing a nuclear-armed Iran, the American Forces Press Service reported Saturday.

During an interview with the Public Broadcasting Service, Dempsey said that while Iran operates on its own internal logic, that doesn't mean Iranian leaders will be reasonable.

The top US military officer was responding to the criticism of his previous statement made during a recent hearing at the Congress, where he said that the Iranian regime was "rational."

"Rational meant to me that there is an evident pattern of behavior that this regime has followed since the Islamic Revolution that, first and foremost, expresses their intention to remain in power and to preserve the regime," he said. "Based on that, there are some things that we know they will respond to. That's a rational actor."

Dempsey cited former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who was toppled by the US invasion in 2003, as an example. Saddam, also "a rational actor," acted with his own logic and made a gross misjudgment of American will, he noted.

The Iranians may find themselves in the same boat, and "they could get it wrong and suffer the consequences," Dempsey said.

He downplayed the differences between the US and Israel, which regards a nuclear-armed Iran as an existential threat, on dealing with Iranian nuclear crisis. The two sides disagree only " in terms of time" rather than "in terms of intent," he said.

Dempsey reiterated that the US still wants to give economic sanctions and diplomatic pressures time to work, without taking any options off the table in its attempt to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran.

The top US general refused to elaborate on how long the US will wait for the sanctions to work. "It's time not necessarily measured in terms of months or years, but in terms of our ability and capability to collect intelligence, to see if they cross any thresholds," he said.