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Iran won’t team up with U.S. against Islamic State Iran won’t team up with U.S. against Islamic State
(about 1 hour later)
PARIS — Iran has rejected a U.S. appeal to join a global fight against Islamic State militants, the country’s leader said Monday, as Western and Arab diplomats gathered to frame strategies against the terror network that controls large areas of Iraq and Syria. PARIS — Iran on Monday spurned an American offer to cooperate in the fight against Islamic State militants, but the United States said the door remains open.
Although Iran remains outside the emerging coalition for the moment, the United States said discussions with Tehran will continue — underscoring Iran’s influence in the region but also showing the political complexities of bringing the country into the emerging international alliance against the Islamic State. Iran’s rebuff came as world powers meeting in the French capital agreed to use “any means necessary” to combat the militant force surging in Iraq and Syria.
Iran’s Shiite theocracy sees the Sunni-led Islamic State as a prime threat to its deep interests in Iraq and Syria. But Iran was excluded from the Paris conference despite appeals from Russia and others to bring Tehran into the fold. Diplomats from 26 nations and several international organizations began dividing responsibilities for what Secretary of State John F. Kerry said will be an expanded international military, diplomatic and law enforcement assault on the group.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said his country has refused the U.S. request for assistance against the Islamic State because of Washington’s “evil intentions,” the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported. “It’s not the Iraq war of 2003,” Kerry told reporters Monday. “We’re not building a military coalition for an invasion. We’re building a military coalition, together with all the other pieces, for a transformation.”
Reuters news agency quoted Khamenei as telling Iran’s state television that the American request was “hollow and self-serving,” echoing Iran’s claims that Western nations are seeking to expand their influence in the region as part of the campaign against the Islamic State. The sudden rise of the Islamic State has not only rearranged old rivalries and alliances, but also eclipsed both Syria’s civil war and Iraq’s sectarian fragmentation as the most pressing threat in the Middle East.
Iran has already made a move in the fight. Tehran has sent its allied Shiite militias in Iraq to fight with Western-backed Kurds against the Islamic State. The notion that the United States might find some common cause with adversaries Iran and even Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is startling, as is the emerging partnership between Sunni spiritual leader Saudi Arabia and Shiite-led Iraq.
The Kurds welcomed the help to blunt the Islamic State advances at a pivotal time before the U.S. began airstrikes. But the leader of one of the key Iran-linked militias in Iraq pledged Monday to pull back from any area where U.S. forces intervene, including possible aerial attacks. Kerry noted Monday that the support that is building for Iraq as it confronts the militants would have been unthinkable only a few months ago.
Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said his forces would leave the battlefield in the area of any U.S. attacks “whether by land or sea, directly or indirectly.” Sadr’s forces waged fierce battles against U.S. troops in the years following the 2003 American-led invasion. As the Paris talks opened — without representatives from either Iran or Syria — French fighter jets flew a reconnaissance mission over Iraq.
Khamenei gave no further details on the outreach from Washington, which U.S. officials said was made during separate negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. France is alone in publicly offering to join the United States in flying bombing missions against Islamic State targets in Iraq, but Arab states have signed up behind the scenes.
In Paris, Secretary of State John F. Kerry also declined to elaborate on the overtures to Iran. The State Department, however, insisted that military cooperation between the longtime foes was not an option — leaving open the possibility that Washington was seeking behind-the-scenes exchanges such as intelligence sharing over a rare common foe. The goal is to back up Iraqi ground forces trying to reverse the militant gains in western and northern Iraq. A statement from the diplomats in Paris made no mention of Syria, where the militants have carved out a haven in the midst of the country’s war.
Iran is deeply opposed to the Islamic State. Tehran’s Shiite theocracy sees the militants as a challenge to Iraq’s majority Shiites — whose political parties have close ties to Iran — and a destabilizing force against Iran’s other main regional ally, President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. In a show of support for Iraq’s new leadership, the conference participants pledged to expunge the militants from territory seized in Iraq “by any means necessary, including appropriate military assistance.”
But Iran’s partnership in the international coalition would risk repercussions. Sunni Arab states such as Saudi Arabia — long-time rivals of Iran — are likely to oppose any high-profile role by Iran in the Islamic State showdowns. Iran played spoiler, as its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, tweeted his disdain for the international effort and revealed a back-channel U.S. offer of unspecified cooperation against the militants. Khamenei said Iran rejected the U.S. request because of Washington’s “evil intentions,” the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the United States raised the issue of the militant threat during separate U.S.-Iranian negotiations aimed at curbing Iran’s disputed nuclear program, she said. The Reuters news agency quoted Khamenei as telling Iran’s state television that the U.S. request was “hollow and self-serving,” echoing Iran’s claims that Western nations are seeking to expand their influence in the region as part of the campaign against the Islamic State.
“It is not a secret that we have had discussions with Iran about the counter-ISIL efforts in Iraq,” Psaki said, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State. “I am not going to outline every diplomatic discussion.” The United States did not deny the outreach to Iran and said discussions with Tehran will continue — underscoring Iran’s influence in the region as well as the political complexities of bringing the Shiite powerhouse into the emerging international alliance against the Islamic State.
She, however, ruled out any U.S. military coordination with Iran. The United States and Iran have been diplomatically estranged for more than 30 years and have long considered each other principal adversaries in the Middle East. “I’m just going to hold open the possibility always of having a discussion that had the possibility of being constructive,” Kerry said, without providing substantive details about the U.S. request. “I’m not going to get into a back-and-forth.”
By going public with the U.S. offer Monday, Iran appeared to close off the possibility of cooperation against the militants for now.By going public with the U.S. offer Monday, Iran appeared to close off the possibility of cooperation against the militants for now.
“We will be continuing those talks on the nuclear issue later this week in New York,” Psaki said. “There may be another opportunity on the margins in the future to discuss Iraq.” However, Iran has sent its allied Shiite militias in Iraq to fight with Western-backed Kurds against the Islamic State. Iran’s Shiite theocracy considers the Sunni militants a challenge to Iraq’s majority Shiites — whose political parties have close ties to Tehran — and a destabilizing force against Assad, Iran’s other main regional ally.
In Paris, Arab, European and other diplomats gathered Monday for discussions about supporting the new Iraqi government and turning back the militants, who have seized major caches of arms from Iraqi arsenals and bring in critical revenue from smuggling oil from areas they have overrun. Although details of the U.S.-Iranian discussion remain vague, it appears to have been an offer of behind-the-scenes cooperation rather than public partnership.
The Paris meeting came at the end of Kerry’s week-long tour of Arab allies and Turkey devoted to recruiting diplomatic and military support for the U.S.-led campaign. The trip also overlapped with the release another video showing the beheading of a Western hostage, British aid worker David Haines. Any public cooperation with Iran would doom the emerging alliance between Iraq and Sunni Arab states in the Persian Gulf region and elsewhere that had feuded with Nouri al-Maliki, the former Iraqi prime minister. The Sunni states regard Iran with deep suspicion and considered Maliki, a Shiite partisan with strong ties to Tehran, as a pawn of Iran.
On Sunday, U.S. officials said Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have volunteered to launch airstrikes alongside U.S. planes. But they stressed that such an expansion was still under discussion and subject to review by Iraq, which had frosty relations with Persian Gulf states under former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, widely viewed as a Shiite partisan who alienated Iraqi Sunnis. France had wanted to invite Iran to the talks. But the United States resisted the move as it tries to stitch together a diverse alliance against the Islamic State and overcome reluctance among many states to intervene in any way in the Syrian conflict, now in its fourth year. Nearly 200,000 people have died in the fighting, according to the United Nations.
Both the United Arab Emirates and Qatar carried out strikes during the 2011 air campaign in Libya. Qatar’s role is not entirely clear now, although it is participating in training Syrian rebels, as is Jordan. Kerry said Monday that Saudi King Abdullah had told him that if Iran attended Monday’s session, the Saudis would boycott. The United Arab Emirates had drawn the same line, Kerry said.
Saudi Arabia is also expected to participate in expanded training of the rebels fighting both the Islamic State and Assad. As the international efforts gathered steam, the leader of a key Iran-linked militia in Iraq pledged Monday to pull back from any area where U.S. forces intervene, including possible aerial attacks.
Opening the Paris conference, French President François Hollande said the threat from global militancy requires a coordinated and international response. France is among the European nations deeply alarmed by the flow of radicalized young men who have traveled from Europe to fight alongside the rebels and who could seek to return home. Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said his forces would pull out of any area where the United States launches attacks, “whether by land or sea, directly or indirectly.” His forces waged fierce battles against U.S. troops in the years after the 2003 American-led invasion.
“Islamic State’s doctrine is either you support us or kill us,” Iraqi President Fouad Masoum told delegates from 30 countries. “It has committed massacres and genocidal crimes and ethnic purification.” Opening the Paris conference, French President François Hollande said the threat from global militancy requires a coordinated and international response. France is among the European nations deeply alarmed by the flow of radicalized young men who have traveled from Europe to fight in Syria and who could seek to return home.
The meeting came at the end of Kerry’s week-long tour of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey. The trip sought to frame the division of labor for a wider assault on the Islamic State, with the U.S. military and Iraqi forces playing the central roles.
On Sunday, U.S. officials said Arab states have volunteered to launch airstrikes alongside U.S. planes. But they stressed that such an expansion was still under discussion and subject to review by Iraq.
Officials from the region said the volunteers included Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and others, whose leaders had been waiting to hear from the administration that it has a viable plan and is prepared to follow through with it.
Both the United Arab Emirates and Qatar conducted strikes during the 2011 air campaign in Libya. Qatar’s role is not entirely clear now, though it is helping train Syrian rebels, as is Jordan.
Saudi Arabia is also expected to participate in expanded training of the rebels fighting both the Islamic State and Assad. The Saudis have been pressing the United States to accede to long-standing Syrian rebel requests for surface-to-air antiaircraft weapons, which could be a game-changer for the chronically under-equipped opposition forces, but the Obama administration has refused.
The U.S. decision to confront the militants, first in Iraq and eventually in Syria, also benefits Assad, although U.S. officials insist they will act only in their own interests.
“We’re not coordinating with Iran,” Kerry said, but “we’re open to have a conversation at some point in time if there’s a way to find something constructive.”
Kerry also ruled out coordination with Syria.
Brian Murphy in Washington and Loveday Morris in Baghdad contributed to this report.Brian Murphy in Washington and Loveday Morris in Baghdad contributed to this report.