President Barack Obama's efforts to engineer a diplomatic rapprochement with Iran came under fire last night when a former top US general in Iraq warned that Iran remained "deeply hostile" to American interests in the Middle East.
"The current Iranian regime is not our ally in the Middle East. It is ultimately part of the problem, not the solution," said David Petraeus, the former CIA director and author of the troop surge that temporarily suppressed al-Qaeda in Iraq by 2009.
His assessment of Iran as a fundamentally malign force in the region is starkly at odds with Mr Obama's own efforts to broker a nuclear deal with Iran's leaders that could ultimately presage a strategic realignment of US interests in the Middle East.
Mr Petraeus warned that Iranian-backed militias now operating in Iraq posed a greater long-term threat to the country's future stability than the militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil).
"Iranian power in the Middle East is thus a double problem. It is foremost problematic because it is deeply hostile to us and our friends," he said an interview with the Washington Post.
"But it is also dangerous because, the more it is felt, the more it sets off reactions that are also harmful to our interests – Sunni radicalism and, if we aren't careful, the prospect of nuclear proliferation as well."
Mr Obama is facing intense political pressure both at home and abroad over his intended deal with Iran to curb its nuclear programme, but has made direct appeals to both the US and Iranian public to trust to the negotiations.
President Obama's Mowruz message to Iran
In a video-taped message to the Iranian people yesterday to mark the Iranian New Year festival of Nowruz, Mr Obama said peace was possible. "We have the best opportunity in decades to pursue a different future between our countries," he said.
"My message to you – the people of Iran – is that, together, we have to speak up for the future we seek," Mr Obama added, while separately calling on the Iranian government to release three Americans currently missing or imprisoned in Iran.
Mr Obama said the nuclear negotiations had now entered a "critical" final stage that could pave the way for the lifting of international economic sanctions and a more prosperous and stable future for Iran.
The talks in Lausanne, Switzerland, which are working to a March 31 deadline, broke up yesterday but are promised to resume next week.
Both sides have indicated a deal is now a serious possibility, although differences remain, particularly over the speed of sanctions relief that would result from an Iranian agreement to limit its nuclear programme and submit to an intrusive international inspections regime.
Before their respective delegations departed, both John Kerry, the US secretary of state, and Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian Foreign Minister, said that "good progress" had been made, but crucial points remained to be settled.
The prospect of a rapprochement with Iran is being bitterly and publicly opposed by America's traditional allies in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and Israel, who believe Mr Obama is brokering a weak deal that would only fuel the Iranian regional ascendancy in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.
US Secretary of State John Kerry takes takes a break during Iran nuclear negotiations in Lausanne, Switzerland
Fundamental differences over how to treat Iran have also ruptured the US-Israel relationship, with the White House warning this week that it would "re-evaluate" its long-standing support for Israel at the UN Security Council where the US has long blocked efforts to recognise a Palestinian State.
Earlier this month Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, delivered an all-out snub to the Obama administration in his speech to Congress – given without a White House invitation – denouncing the putative Iranian deal which he contended risked paving the road to an Iranian bomb.
Mr Petraeus, who was forced to resign from the CIA in 2012 over an extra-marital affair, warned that using Iranian-backed Shiite militias to roll back the Islamic State in Iraq risked handing Iran effective control over large parts of the country – a strategic goal of Tehran's since the war of the 1980s.
"Longer term, Iranian-backed Shia militia could emerge as the preeminent power in the country, one that is outside the control of the government and instead answerable to Tehran," said Mr Petraeus, adding this would be a "very harmful outcome for Iraqi stability and sovereignty" and US interests.
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