Commenting on U.S. military exercises in the Gulf, a senior IRGC official contended that the “holding of such drills cannot lead to their [ie, U.S.] continued presence in the region. The Americans are in a situation under which longer presence in the region would be to their detriment, because the regional countries despise the Americans”. He further argued that “if the Americans leave the region, the regional countries will be able to establish sustainable security through synergism, because security benefits all the regional countries and the Americans avail themselves of instability in the region”.