Obama wrote secret letter to Iran supreme leader: Report

UPDATED: 07 Nov 2014 10:25


US President Barack Obama sent the letter last month to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and described what he called a "shared fight" against the Islamic State group, providing there is a nuclear deal, the Wall Street Journal said.

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has secretly written to Iran's supreme leader to discuss possible cooperation in the fight against Islamic State militants providing there is a nuclear deal, a US daily reported on Thursday (Nov 6).

Obama sent the letter last month to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and described what he called a "shared fight" against the Sunni militant Islamic State group, the Wall Street Journal said, citing "people briefed on the correspondence."

Iran, a Shiite Muslim state, and the United States have not had diplomatic ties since the 1979 storming of the American embassy in Tehran and the 444-day hostage crisis. But there has been a growing recognition that Iran - still dubbed by Washington a state sponsor of terrorism - could play a role in helping to restore stability in countries such as Iraq and Syria.

Refusing to deny or confirm the report, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said: "I'm not in a position to discuss private correspondence between the president and any world leader."

Iran and the United States are currently negotiating a complex deal to rein in Iranian nuclear ambitions in exchange for an easing of crippling international sanctions against the Islamic republic.

Earnest repeated that on the sidelines of those talks, being led by a group of powers known as the P5+1, Iran and the US had discussed the threat of the militants. 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 his letter, Obama reportedly stressed to Khamenei that any cooperation in fighting IS militants would depend on reaching a comprehensive nuclear deal, as a Nov 24 deadline looms.

The Journal said it was believed to be the fourth letter from Obama to Khamenei since the American leader took office in 2009. US officials told the paper that the Iranian leader has never responded personally to the overtures.

Many of Washington's regional allies, including Israel as well as Saudi Arabia, have been wary of the US administration bid to engage Iran diplomatically, and the Journal's sources said the White House did not tell those countries in advance of Obama's letter.

US Secretary of State John Kerry will on Sunday meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as well as EU foreign policy chief Cathy Ashton in Oman, for a fresh round of nuclear talks.

(excerpt)

Read more:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/obama-wrote-secret-letter/1458432.html

True to Obama's character he continues to estrange America's allies and align himself with America's enemies. Even Saudi Arabia is up in arms about this latest revelation and is seeking allies other than Obama's America.

 

Until or unless the contents of the letter are actually revealed, we can't know for certain what was communicated, or in what way. To put everything in the fairest, most accurate context it would be necessary to know the contents of the other three letters from Obama to the Iranian leadership also.

Frankly, although I have the lowest possible opinion of Obama's leadership, intelligence, and understanding of the entire world, it's hard to believe that even he would be stupid enough to think that he could further entice the Iranians to go after ISIS when the Iranians (being Shi'a) are spring-loaded to want to destroy them anyway because they are Sunni.... And to offer to them that the U. S. would "look the other way" and passively allow them to attain nuclear power? That's no special enticement -- the Iranians are on a direct path to attaining nuclear power status anyway, no matter what the U. S. does at this point!

Parenthetically, the only way that Iranian nuclear ambitions might be stopped would be for some antagonist (?) to launch an attack -- NOT on the subterranean nuclear bunkers, far below the surface -- but on the Iranian civil and military infrastructure in the towns and cities! It's hard to keep thousands of centrifuges happily spinning hundreds of feet below in underground laboratories when the water, sewage, utility systems, food distribution, and medical facilities have been blown all to hell at home on TOP of the ground. Make it impossible to function above the ground and things will quickly grind to a halt below the ground....

But surely, as well-informed as Obama is, he must know this... and so this whole ruse with letters to the Iranian power-brokers is really just so much diplomatic gamesmanship... right...?

 

Well, I hope the Iranians told 0bama to get bent and stop arming those so-called terrorists in the first place, and also to quit trying to destabilise the entire region by systematically toppling governments.

 

Saudi Arabia would welcome a comprehensive nuclear deal with Iran.........

 

Are you sure of that? Show us factual data?

 

Obama Wrote Secret Letter to Iran’s Khamenei About Fighting Islamic State
In a sign of the sensitivity of the Iran diplomacy, the White House didn’t tell its Middle East allies—including Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates—about Mr. Obama’s October letter to Mr. Khamenei, according to people briefed on the correspondence and representatives of allied countries.

Leaders from these countries have voiced growing concern in recent weeks that the U.S. is preparing to significantly soften its demands in the nuclear talks with Tehran. They said they worry the deal could allow Iran to gain the capacity to produce nuclear weapons in the future.

Arab leaders also fear Washington’s emerging rapprochement with Tehran could come at the expense of their security and economic interests across the Middle East. These leaders have accused the U.S. of keeping them in the dark about its diplomatic engagements with Tehran.


**[snip]**
Arab leaders also fear Washington’s emerging rapprochement with Tehran could come at the expense of their security and economic interests across the Middle East. These leaders have accused the U.S. of keeping them in the dark about its diplomatic engagements with Tehran.

The Obama administration launched secret talks with Iran in the Omani capital of Muscat in mid-2012, but didn’t notify Washington’s Mideast allies of the covert diplomatic channel until late 2013.

(Excerpt)

Read more:
http://online.wsj.com/articles/obam...menei-about-fighting-islamic-state-1415295291

Actually our Middle Eastern allies are quite upset over the secret dealings Obama has been conducting.

 

Yes.. the Saudis have lobbied for A NUCLEAR FREE Middle East for 40 years. Iran is a pain in the as for them, but not a threat as long as they don't have nuclear weapons.

 

The United States is biding it's time as because over 70% of all Iranian's are 30 years old or younger....and absolutely HATE the forced rule of the Old Guard Iranian Revolutionary Guard...it is simply a matter of time before these Old Guard Religious Leaders die out.

Because over 90% of all Iranian's desire close ties to the United States and war between the U.S. and Iran which would result in the comlete destruction of all Iranian Military Forces which are basically a bunch of 18 to 24 year old KIDS....would not be in the interests of the United States.

Iran is being contained....and the Ayatollah's can't live forever.

AboveAlpha

 

Obama is a lawyer with better than average communication skills. He is NOT a statesman by any stretch of the imagination. But what did they think we'd get by electing a community organizer who has no practical experience at running a business a corporation or a State AND was originally 'elected' by disqualifying his opponent. A man who has ties to Bob Ayers (mad bomber of the 60's), has sketchy experience and voted not present most of the time.

 

You are right ... the young Iranians hate the government ...

 

And just to add if you or anyone else checks my posting history I talked about this over a year ago.

When the Israeli's and Saudi's were screaming for the U.S. to destroy Iranian Nuclear Facilities as the Iranaian's did not have the ability or Technology to build Nuclear Reactors so as long as a Nations signs the NPT...Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty a Nation can buy Nuclear Reactor tech as Iran did from Russia.

But Iran broke just about every rule in the NPT which allows the U.N. to use Military Force to force compliance.

I can speek Farsi and I knew that 90% of Iranian's wanted no part of being in the crosshairs of any American Military Action as the U.S. Military Attack upon Basra...a city somewhat close to Iran...was so violent that Iranian Families near this boarder were terrified at the shear violence of the American Attack.

When Iraqi Shiite Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is a young, fiercely anti-American messianic cleric and the head of the Mahdi Army was listed as a target by U.S. Forces and he escaped to Iran....we let Iran know that any cross boarder attacks by the Mahdi Army would not be tollerated.

But we did catch and capture members of the Iranian Qud's Force disguised as Iranian Dilomats supplying Shaped Charged IED's to Militants in Iraq....we interrogated them and found out they were sent into Iraq by orders coming from the highest levels of Iranain Leadership.

This is where My Team and I came into play as we were sent to make it clear to the Iranian's that if they continued to do this the consequences for them would be painful and extreme and they did knock it off.

The fact is most of Iran is populated by young people who want to live free and Iranian Women especially do not want to have to be forced to cover their hair in public as they want a seperation of church and state.

Attacking Iran would simply alienate FUTURE ALLIES.

AboveAlpha

 

And ISIS?

 

ISIS is nothing more than about only 17,000 Crazies running around spread out over Iraq, Syria and Kurdistan.

I and my Team helped degrade their numbers by a great extent but most peole don't understand what or who the ISIS really is.

The ISIS are mostly men who even Al-Qaeda thought were too crazy to join that ranks as the ISIS are comprised of the Criminally Insane, Sociopaths, Mentally Ill and Disturbed and Murderers and Rapists given the choice to either rot in priso or join the ISIS.

The people that actually created the ISIS are the smart ones and used them to undermine U.S. Middle Eastern Policy but a bunch of crazies totalling only 17,000 is so small a number that the well armed people of my home town could defeat them in a standu fight.

But the ISIS after being pounded by U.S. Air Strikes and degraded by SOCOM Forces...have spread themselves so far out and so thin....they really are no longer a viable military force.

AboveAlpha

 

ISIS are Zarqawi's people. One and the same. They currently own Anbar province again (remember that place it took so long to kick them out of?). They're not gone, not by a long shot.

 

really great post
thanks for sharing

 

There no question that ISIL is a problem for everyone in the region... but they don't want another war .. just as the Saudis don't want the whole region to be at war.

The Saudis are concerned as to whether or not Iran gets nukes because that means they too would have to develop nuclear weapons...

The SAG certainly knows what the US is up against.

 

Not our problem at the moment.

We told the former Iraqi Leader that when he removed all Sunni Iraqi Military Leaders and removed all Sunni Governent Leaders and replaced them with Shiites this would hapen.

It is time for the Iraqi's to step up and we already resolved a few HUGE issues for them when ISIS Forces controlled some very strategic sites which we helped remove ISIS members from.

AboveAlpha

 

NO ONE in the Middle East except the Israeli's will be allowed to have Nuclear Weapons....that I can assure you.

If say....IRAN....tommorrow declared they had developed their first Nuke....U.S. Secial Forces and Rangers would seize all Iranaian Nuclear Sites and we have been in contact with the Iranian Navy and they would stand down if we came in.

As for the hardcore Iranian Revolutionary Guard....we could easily handle them with Air Power as well as use USAF Non-Nuclear EMP's to render Iranian Army Divisions inert and no Iranian Air Force Pilots are going to attempt to even take off as it would be suicide.

AboveAlha

 

I agree that even Obama administration cannot be that silly and it's actually difficult to follow what the Wall Street Journal presents.

I would say it's even misleading, so misleading that it could be a wanted leak from the State Department [or environments near to the White House] to spread around not accurate information about the exchange of letters between the US and the Iranian leadership [better to move attention away from the real geopolitical matters ...].

I cannot see what Washington could concede in the nuclear field to Iran:

* less visits and controls by international inspectors?
Substantially an empty and useless move of image [so empty that its value as "exchange good" in a geopolitical barter would be less than null!]

* An official permission to produce nuclear weapons?
A political suicide for the next Democrat candidate who should explain during electoral campaign why the predecessor allowed Ayatollahs to get nuclear weaponry [!!! Are we joking ???].
- Sure this would be really valuable in a geopolitical barter, but for US internal policy it would be really difficult to spend ...

So?

Economy ... Italy still keeps economical relations with Iran [despite embargo] and the main field is ... [guess!] oil importations. Recent sanctions are hitting Iranian economy and Ayatollahs know that worse economical conditions for the people are source of risk for an authoritative regime [people have to live well not to mind too much about freedom, democracy and other useless things, you know ...].

So, my educated guess is that they are negotiating an exchange like

Iranian support against ISIS = less international economical sanctions for Iran

But of course, I can be totally wrong and Obama is going to concede for real to Ayatollah the possibility to develop nuclear weaponry [one never knows!].

 

OK I have always thought that ISIS was a magnet for psychopaths. So what's the solution, replace the dictators? Wait what about reality shows? We can make the whole ME a reality show!! Wait.......it is...

 

What you wrote is correct. Nevertheless, Obama's experience in international affairs is very limited. He is a typical American, truly 'one of us', who is raised on believes in American superiority in democracy and poor knowledge of history, natural history and geography.

 

Its well known i am not the biggest fan of Obama but what is wrong with diplomacy?

 

They have failed mightily then... That Israel or just doesnt give a damn.

 

This puzzled me too at first and then I read an article about it yesterday on Fox (Internet) and got the following explanation as to why it's supposed to be a bad thing. As for myself, I am not sure:

 

Republican Senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina issued a joint statement Thursday night saying it was "outrageous that, while the cries of moderate Syrian forces for greater U.S. assistance fall on deaf ears in the White House, President Obama is apparently urging Ayatollah Khamenei to join the fight against ISIS.

Keep in mind McCain and Graham wanted ISIS armed to begin with and both desperately want a holy war with Iran... In other words.. (*)(*)(*)(*) them they are bloody insane.