When Zalmay "Abu Omar" Khalilzad says it, it doesn't get the attention it deserves, but still. Consider the implications of this quote:

We will not allow hegemony of a hostile regime to have power over this area.

One can easily imagine an Iranian general reading the paper and muttering to himself, "Takes one to know one." Khalilzad is not talking about interests here, or anything else that's tangible. He's talking about diminishing Iranian influence in Iraq -- and, probably, the Middle East more broadly. (Khalilzad, of course, is about to become Ambassador to the United Nations.) With that position, there simply is nothing to discuss. Hegemony is a zero-sum game. It's us or them. In other words, it's war, and the only question is whether it's a limited war or not.