George W. Bush did not request the resignation of Admiral William Fallon, his military commander in the Middle East, the White House said. Adm Fallon stepped down abruptly on Tuesday following a magazine article that portrayed the former fighter pilot as a lone officer pitted against the US president over Iran policy.

In a flattering Esquire magazine article, Thomas Barnett, a former professor at the Naval War College, wrote that: "If, in the dying light of the Bush administration, we go to war with Iran, it'll all come down to the same man. He is the rarest of creatures in the Bush universe: the good cop on Iran." Mr Barnett implied in the article that the only person stopping the administration striking Iran was Adm -Fallon.