Mixed messages: U.S.-Iran conflict rises on the sidelines of Iraq fight

Secretary of State John Kerry says he won’t shut the door on the possibility of working with Iran against a common enemy in the Islamic State (IS) militant group, but the two nations won’t coordinate on military action. Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, speaking on Iranian state television, said his government privately refused American requests for cooperation against IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL, warning that another U.S. incursion would result “in the same problems they faced in Iraq in the past 10 years.”

Right from the start, the United States asked through its ambassador in Iraq whether we could cooperate … I said no, because they have dirty hands.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader

Neither Iran nor Syria, which together share most of Iraq’s borders, were invited to the international conference, which opened as a pair of French reconnaissance jets took off over Iraqi skies. Iraq’s foreign minister on Monday voiced “regret” that Iran was not invited to an international conference in Paris to discuss the threat posed by IS militants. A French intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, last week told The Associated Press that “it would please a certain number of countries for Iran to step in to establish order” in Syria. He said that was the view of some Western powers.

We insisted that Iran be present. However, it’s not us that took the decision. We regret the absence of Iran at this conference.

Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Iraq’s foreign minister

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