Foreign Policy quotes Thomas Pickering, Former US Ambassador, Undersecretary of State, and member of the Atlantic Council’s Iran Task Force, from a conference call hosted by the Atlantic Council on the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program:
But the rivalry between the Islamic Republic and the United States — which has long been referred to by Iranian leaders as the “Great Satan” — is likely to endure, ensuring that any shift in the balance of power in the region is “not so large, in fact, that it should shake the fillings out of the teeth of our Saudi friends,” Pickering told reporters Wednesday at a news teleconference hosted by the Atlantic Council.