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Hassan Rouhani says Iran ready to aid Shi’ites in Iraq, “can think” of cooperating with U.S.

Jun 14, 2014 7:56 am By Robert Spencer

Hassan RouhaniIn other words: “Sure, we’ll accept help from the Great Satan to defeat the Sunnis in Iraq. And Barack Obama just might be fool enough to fall for this, thinking he is pulling off something that he can sell to his media as an act of great statesmanship, turning a decades-long adversary into an ‘ally.’ His media won’t report on our continuing ‘Death to America’ marches in Tehran, and won’t tell the American people that we are simply using America’s resources and will turn on it later.”

On the other hand, Obama might not go for it. After all, it would confirm the staggering incoherence of his foreign policy: aiding the jihadists in Syria while fighting the same jihadists in Iraq.

“Hassan Rouhani says ready to aid Iraq, ‘can think’ of role with US,” Reuters, June 14, 2014:

ANKARA: Iran could contemplate cooperating with its old adversary the United States on restoring security to Iraq if it saw Washington confronting “terrorist groups in Iraq and elsewhere”, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday.

Rouhani, a relative moderate who has presided over a thaw in Iran’s relations with the west, added that Tehran stood ready to provide help to Iraq within the framework of international law, but so far Baghdad had not requested such assistance.

Shi’ite Muslim Iran has been alarmed by the seizure this week of several major northern Iraqi towns by Sunni Islamist insurgent forces and their sweep southward to within an hour’s drive of Baghdad, and not far from the Iranian border.

A senior Iranian official told Reuters earlier this week that Tehran, which has strong leverage in Shi’ite-majority Iraq, may be ready to cooperate with the United States in helping Baghdad fight back against the jihadist ISIL rebels.

“We all should practically and verbally confront terrorist groups,” Rouhani told a press conference broadcast live on state television.

Asked if Tehran would work with Washington in tackling advances by Sunni insurgents in Iraq, he replied: “We can think about it if we see America starts confronting the terrorist groups in Iraq or elsewhere.”

Fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) are bent on recreating a mediaeval caliphate spanning territory they have carved out in fragmenting Iraq and Syria, where it has exploited a power vacuum in the midst of civil war.

The senior Iranian official told Reuters the idea of cooperating with the Americans was being discussed within the Tehran leadership. For now, according to Iranian media, Iran will send Baghdad’s Shi’ite-led government advisers and weaponry, although probably not troops, to boost Baghdad.

In Washington, US President Barack Obama said he was reviewing military options, short of sending combat troops, to help Iraq repel the insurgency but warned any US action must be accompanied by an Iraqi government effort to bridge divisions between Shi’ite and Sunni communities.

US officials said there were no contacts going on with Iran over the crisis in Iraq.

Rouhani said Iran would consider any request for help it got from Baghdad, although he was not aware of any American plans for Iraq or whether Washington wanted to help Baghdad.

“If the Iraqi government and nation ask for our help, we will review it. So far there has not been such a request,” he said. “We are ready to help in the framework of international regulations and laws.”

“We have always helped to secure stability in the region, whether in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the region.”

Rouhani said “terrorist groups” were getting financial and political backing and weaponry from some regional countries and some powerful Western states.

He named no countries, but was alluding in part to Sunni Gulf Arabs who Iran suspects has funneled support to ISIL.

“Where did ISIL come from? Who is funding this terrorist group? We had warned everyone, including the West, about the danger of backing such a terrorist and reckless group.”…

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Filed Under: Iran, Iraq, Sunni-Shi'ite Jihad, United States Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. Salah says

    Jun 14, 2014 at 9:30 am

    “it would confirm the staggering incoherence of his (Obama’s) foreign policy: aiding the jihadists in Syria while fighting the same jihadists in Iraq.”

    Obama has nothing to do with this, he’s not running the show in the White House, the Muslim Brotherhood thugs are. The jihadist ISIL rebels are an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.
    Indeed, what a dilemma!!!

  2. Jay Boo says

    Jun 14, 2014 at 11:44 am

    Obama does not need to take on ISIS
    He and the MSM will blame the carnage in Iraq that result from all his failures and collusion on the government in Iraq just as was done in Nigeria.
    The liberal media will coo and nod their heads in unison.

  3. concerned says

    Jun 14, 2014 at 12:11 pm

    Obama should not act against ISIS.

    Iraq is a Shia majority country with Shia majority Iran with it’s neighbour.ISIS cannot overrun whole of Iraq but it’s presence in Iraq in conjugation with it’s presence in Syria would prolong this Shia-Sunni civil war; best outcome for Kuffars.

  4. gravenimage says

    Jun 14, 2014 at 2:24 pm

    Hassan Rouhani says Iran ready to aid Shi’ites in Iraq, “can think” of cooperating with U.S.
    ………………………….

    Well, this is the “logical” end result of our schizophrenic foreign policy—where we are urged to support Jihadists in Syria and oppose them in Iraq, even though they not only have the very same goals but are in many cases the very same Jihadist outfit—ISIS.

    And Iran presents one of our greatest dangers—but here we would be acting in concert with them.

    Madness all around…

    And this would just be the usual Sunni/Shi’ite savagery—except that Christians have been caught in the middle. Of course, very few people have been talking about the genocide against them at all…

  5. Ernest Brown says

    Jun 14, 2014 at 5:09 pm

    Obama is a treasonous lying dog of a traitor, but he is no fool. Look for more sellouts.

  6. Edwin Rowe says

    Jun 15, 2014 at 11:04 am

    The only good thing about ISISis that they threaten Iran. THE US SHOULD DO EVERYTHING TO PUSH ISIS TOWARDS IRAN AND FOR THEM TO HAVE A WAR WITH IRAN. It will drain Iran’s resources and slow them in their quest for a nuclear bomb. It might even cause the collapse of the Teheran regime. Blessing in disguise.

    • Peter Buckley says

      Jun 15, 2014 at 11:44 am

      Spot on. The Iranian economy has been on the verge for some time:

      http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3597/iran-rial-collpase

      What’s happening in Iraq is their worst nightmare. The need to bolster Shia in Iraq will finally tip them over the edge……

  7. Michael Shaw says

    Jun 16, 2014 at 2:13 pm

    Politics sure makes strange bedfellows but in this case Rouhani will be “Top” and Obama “Bottom” man. That is okay with Obama because he like bending over like he did with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

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