President Obama Secretly Wrote To Iran's Ayatollah About The Fight Against ISIS
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Obama personally communicated with the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, urging cooperation in the effort against the Islamic State and in reaching a nuclear accord.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, President Obama sent a personal letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to urge cooperation in the fight against ISIS.
Obama argued that the threat posed by the Islamic State was a shared interest between the United States and Iran, but that any cooperation on ISIS was contingent on a deal regarding Iran's nuclear program.
The back-channel communication comes amid the Obama administraion's ongoing efforts to thaw relations with Iran, with Obama personally reaching out to Khamenei, the supreme religious leader who Washington views as the ultimate power within Tehran.
The letter was sent in October and is at least the fourth Obama has sent to the Ayatollah, reports the Wall Street Journal, but Khamenei has yet to directly respond to the overtures.
Although Iran and the U.S. have had no official diplomatic relations since the 1979 takeover of the American Embassy in Tehran, there was hope of rapprochement after the election of moderate president Hassan Rouhani in 2013.
The Obama Administraion has sought a deal to freeze and monitor Iran's nuclear program in exchange for an easing of economic sanctions, an effort that will likely become more difficult with a hawkish Republican majority coming to Congress.
Iran also views ISIS as a threat, having sent military resources to both Iraq and Syria to try and halt their advance, which the White House sees as an area of common ground to help advance negotiations.
