Rafsanjani says Iran won in the U.S.-led war on Iraq

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Dec. 07 – Iran’s former president and strongman Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani told an international trade management show that Iran had come out as the “winner” in the United States-led war on Iraq and Washington had ended up as the loser, the official state-run news agency reported on Wednesday. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Dec. 07 – Iran’s former president and strongman Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani told an international trade management show that Iran had come out as the “winner” in the United States-led war on Iraq and Washington had ended up as the loser, the official state-run news agency reported on Wednesday.

Rafsanjani said that Washington had set its sights on Tehran, but it never “thought that the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan would be to Iran’s advantage and to its own loss”.

“All the recent events in the region, including the meddling by the West and America in Afghanistan and Iraq, were in the end to Iran’s advantage”, the powerful cleric who heads the State Expediency Council said.

“Our soil is such that it can use extra-territorial invasions in the farthest regions to our benefit”.

He said that Tehran could have benefited more from the war if its management had been more active in the scene. Nonetheless, he added, Iraq and Afghanistan would be good regional partners for Iran.