IRGC Brigadier General Hassan Salami said that Iran was successfully thwarting the United States’ policies in the Middle East. PHOTO: Fars News Agency.

A senior Iranian commander claimed that the country’s efforts to thwart U.S. policies and interests in the Gulf region and globally are succeeding, Iran’s semi-official state news agency Fars reported on Wednesday.

“Today, we are defeating the U.S. and all its regional and trans-regional allies’ policies in the region and the world,” said Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, deputy commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), addressing a forum in Tehran.

He also noted that Tehran was acting to counter U.S. influence within the country itself, saying, “We are able to live without the U.S. similar to the past and we don’t need it at all.”

Salami was echoing similar remarks made on Tuesday by Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in which he said Iran would not allow the U.S. to influence countries in the region, particularly Tehran’s allies.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is the first power in the region and it plays an important role in supporting the resistance line against U.S. hegemony and Zionists’ expansionism and it will not allow the U.S. to influence the region for various reasons,” Velayati said.

The comments came after proponents of the nuclear deal agreed between Iran and world powers last month expressed hope that the arrangement would open the door to the Iran regime’s moderation.