Do they laugh at us over things like this? I asked. "No," he replied. "People think the U.S. must be in some big conspiracy." In other words, we just couldn't be as dumb as we really are.
What about China and Russia, the big winners in the oil auction?
"We don't need China and Russia," he replied. "Iran does. Iran needs China's and Russia's support at the United Nations. Iran doesn't have much to give, so Iran gives them Iraqi oil contracts to get their support at the U.N."
Makes sense.
"Iran's objective is to drive the U.S. out of the Middle East," Aldin says. And, he says, Iran works with al-Qaida and the Taliban to do so. Testing him on another Washington myth, I asked: But Shiite Iran wouldn't work with Sunni al-Qaida and Sunni Taliban, would they?
"They all have one enemy," he said. "The U.S. -- Shia and Sunni differences don't matter to them when it comes to the common enemy."
He continued. "There is a saying in Iran: The guard of any caravan is partner with the thieves." That, he says, describes Iran's simultaneous support for the government of Iran and its support for al-Qaida, or anyone else operating against U.S. interests -- Baathists, Taliban, anyone.
Al-Qaida and Iran, he says, can control the whole Middle East, between al-Qaida's "southern crescent" (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia) and Iran's "northern crescent" (Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza). What about Saudi Arabia, I asked.
He doesn't laugh but somehow conveys the impression that he did. Not any kind of a power, in his view. Just rich.
When you tell U.S. policymakers your assessment of Iran in Iraq, what is their reaction?,
Deep inside they may realize what has happened, he thinks. But for now, "they're not interested. State of denial."
You can say that again.