An Expert Assembly member here in Tehran on Wednesday said that the United States’ pressures on Iran are aimed at stopping Iran’s rapid growth, adding that Washington seeks to prevent the Islamic Republic from becoming a regional power in the Middle-East. Ali Fallahian said that the US is fearful of Iran’s deep influence on other regional countries, “and that’s why it has always sought to prevent Iran from turning into a regional power.”

He said the Untied States seeks to disintegrate Iran, disunite Iranians and make them faithless individuals supporting the policies and demands of the West, the US in particular.

“The United States strives to impair our national unity through misusing the existing differences in the views of Iranians,” the official mentioned, and further stressed the need for Iranian officials to expand ties with the regional countries in a bid to thwart materialization of the devilish goals pursued by the US.

He noted the United States’ continued presence in Iraq, and added, “The US has not succeeded in fomenting discord between the Shiite and Sunnite Muslims, while the measure has caused certain problems for the Americans themselves.”

The former Iranian intelligence minister, meantime, underscored that the US efforts to spark sectarian and religious strife in Iraq have not produced a bright prospect for the US.

He further reiterated the necessity for the preservation of unity between the Shiites and Sunnites in all Islamic countries, and called on Shiite scholars to enhance relations with their Sunnite counterparts specially under the present sensitive juncture.

Fallahian added that such ties are required to foil the United States’ counterfeit on Shiite-Sunnite relations and to clarify that Shiites are not standing against Sunnites.