If politics makes strange bedfellows, then the relationship between Iran, the United States and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq is the strangest ménage à trois in international relations today.

Violent Shia-on-Shia hostilities officially came to an end this week when a formal cease-fire was declared between government forces of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, but sporadic fighting still continues. And questions remain about the role that the US is playing.

In testimony before Congress a month ago, Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of US troops in Iraq, and the US ambassador Ryan Crocker characterized the conflict in Iraq as a "proxy war" to stem Iranian influence.