The United States is creating havoc in the Middle East in order to disrupt the increasingly close alliance between China, Russia, and Iran and curtail China's growing influence, according Dennis Etler, an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in international affairs.

In an interview with Press TV on Tuesday, Etler, a former professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, said, “The assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani was an act of desperation and cowardice.”

“One of the reasons for the Soleimani murder is the increasingly close ties between China, Russia, and Iran, as seen in the recent joint naval exercises in the Gulf of Oman. This demonstrated that the attempt to isolate Iran internationally has been an abject failure. It should be clear that the economic sanctions imposed by Washington on all three are pushing them closer and closer together, not isolating them from the international community,” he added.

Tensions between the US and Iran escalated after US President Donald Trump ordered the assassination of the top Iranian commander who had played a leading role in the Middle East in the fight against Daesh terrorists.

Fears of a new war in the Middle East emerged following the assassination of General Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) last week.

On Saturday, Trump said that his military would hit “very important” targets, including cultural heritage sites, if the Iranians want to take a retaliatory action against the assassination of Lieutenant General Soleimani.

Etler said, “The US policy of maximum pressure directed against Tehran was also meant to foment domestic discord. But, the suppression of US-backed protests has forestalled a color revolution in Iran similar to the Maidan protests in Ukraine or the recent protests in Hong Kong.”

“In the meantime, China's and Russia's roles in the region are advancing by leaps and bounds. It can be concluded, therefore, that the US attempt to isolate and destabilize Iran has failed. The Trump Middle East policy is flailing and forces in his administration see Russia and China as the beneficiaries. They, therefore, feel a need to reset it by committing more aggression, not less,” he stated.

“It has been suggested in the Western media that US missteps in the region will rebound in China's favor and increase its influence. But, China's increasing role in the region is a major reason for Soleimani's assassination, not a result thereof,” he noted.

“The US can no longer compete with China in the Middle East or anywhere else. It has to create havoc in order to disrupt and curtail China's influence. But, doing so will have the opposite effect. Washington's arrogance and disregard for civilized norms show its desperation and cowardice. The US is thus in a quandary. No matter what it does in the short term, it will lose in the long term,” he concluded.