A former senior CIA official has hailed Iran�s growing role in the Middle East as a factor that heralds monumental shifts in geopolitical equations and settlement of regional issues.
In a Thursday article in The Huffington Post, Graham E. Fuller�wriote: �Dialog with Iran can help defuse Iraq's struggles. Iran could be part of the solution in Syria, rather than target of a proxy war. In Afghanistan, Iran has a greater stake in stability than the US does. Iran is a sworn enemy of Shi'ite-loathing al-Qaeda,�

Fuller pointed to a �virulent and destructive campaign� by Saudi Arabia and other Arab monarchies to portray Iran as an �all-purpose� enemy for the US and noted that the scenario is basically aimed at justifying �their resistance to political change.�

�Truth be told, the Iranian �threat� has been more about spread of Iran's popular revolutionary ideology to overthrow kings and US clients than it was about "Shi'ism," or even a bomb,� the former CIA official pointed out.

He also praised the recent interim nuclear agreement between Iran and the Sextet of powers in Geneva as a �signal step away from the obsessive centrality of Iran in US Middle East policies-- a hostile confrontation of thirty-five crippling years.�

The analyst argued that the US obsession with its mentality about Iran distorted Washington�s view about a wide range of issues across the Middle East, including the Syrian crisis, the war on Iraq, Afghanistan�s crises, energy transfer routes, etc.

�If we can now liberate our geopolitical imaginations a bit, we might perceive the outlines of a new Middle East emerging,� he said.

The article touched on Iran and Turkey as two Middle Eastern powers with stable progress in political and economic spheres and lauded the two countries� achievements in promoting their national democratic systems.

By Press TV

 

The Iran Project is not responsible for the content of quoted articles