'Iran foiled US plan to dominate ME'

Iran: A senior American analyst says US withdrawal from Iraq was the result of Iran's clever strategy to prevent Washington from using Iraq to dominate the Middle East.

Gareth Porter noted in an article published on the Global Research website that despite claims mad e by some US officials that the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq was a success, it was actually the result of "a clever strategy of deception and diplomacy adopted by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in cooperation with Iran."

"[US] Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's suggestion that the end of the US troops presence in Iraq is part of a US military success story ignores the fact that the [former US President] George W. Bush administration and the US military had planned to maintain a semi-permanent military presence in Iraq," he added.

Porter stated that the central element of the Maliki-Iran strategy was the common interest that Maliki, Iran and the Iraqi anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr shared in ending the US occupation. Press TV