U.S. helped Iran's rise by defeating Iran's enemies

"In the vacuum created by the U.S. overthrow of Iranian foes in Afghanistan and Iraq, it [Iran] is exerting a power and prestige that recalls the heady days of the 1979 Islamic revolution, when Iranian clerics led the toppling of a U.S.-backed government.
"The United States is the first to be blamed for the rise of Iranian influence in the Middle East," said Khaled al-Dakhil, a Saudi writer and academic. "There is one thing important about the ascendance of Iran here. It does not reflect a real change in Iranian capabilities, economic or political. It's more a reflection of the failures on the part of the U.S. and its Arab allies in the region."
. . . Iran has found itself strengthened almost by default, first with the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan to Iran's east, which ousted the Taliban rulers against whom it almost went to war in the 1990s, and then to its west, with the American ouster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, against whom it fought an eight-year war in the 1980s."

source
Shadid, Anthony. (The Washington Post). January 30, 2007. With Iran Ascendant, U.S. Is Seen at Fault.

posted: thursday, february 1, 2007, 3:01 AM ET

tags: iran iraq