US President Barack Obama reportedly sent a secret letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei last month in which he offered to work together against the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group in exchange for a deal on Tehran’s nuclear program.
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The existence of the letter was reported by the ‘Wall Street Journal’. It was apparently sent without informing Israel or other Middle Eastern allies, according to unnamed sources familiar with the correspondence cited by the newspaper.
The October missive marked at least the fourth time Mr. Obama has written Iran’s most powerful political and religious leader since taking office in 2009 and pledging to engage with Tehran’s Islamist government. In the letter, Obama says there was a shared interest in working against ISIS, which has seized wide swaths of Iraq and Syria, drawing a military response from a US-led coalition. However, he said that joint operations against the group, which Iran views as a threat, could only take place after Tehran and six world powers came to a final agreement on curbing the country’s nuclear program.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest did not confirm or deny the report: “I’m not in a position to discuss private correspondence between the president and any world leader.” He said that on the sidelines of the nuclear talks Iran and the US had discussed the Islamic State threat. But he reiterated the US stand that “the United States will not cooperate militarily with Iran in that effort, we won’t share intelligence with them.”
In September, Khamenei claimed he had rejected a private approach from the United States suggesting cooperation on the battlefield.
US officials have not confirmed or denied making a request in private, but US Secretary of State John Kerry said at the time that there was a role for Iran in the battle against the Islamic State.
House of Representative Speaker John Boehner (Republican) expressed concern when asked about Obama's overture to Iran. “I don’t trust the Iranians, I don’t think we need to bring them into this,” Boehner told the 'Wall Street Journal'.
