Iran's supreme leader ‘personally rejects’ U.S. offer for IS talks

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iran's supreme leader said on Monday, Sept 15, he had personally rejected an offer from the United States for talks to fight Islamic State, an apparent blow to Washington's efforts to build a military coalition to fight militants in both Iraq and Syria, according to Reuters.

During a meeting in Paris on Monday, world powers gave public backing to military action to fight Islamic State fighters in Iraq. France sent jets on a reconnaissance mission to Iraq, a step toward becoming the first ally to join the U.S.-led air campaign there.

The United States launched an air strike against an Islamic State target southwest of Baghdad, the U.S. Central Command said on Monday night, expanding its campaign against the militant group that has seized parts of Iraq and Syria.

Iran, the principal ally of Islamic State's main foes in both Iraq and Syria, was not invited to the Paris meeting. The countries that did attend - while supporting action in Iraq - made no mention at all of Syria, where U.S. diplomats face a far tougher task building an alliance for action, Reuters says.

"I saw no point in cooperating with a country whose hands are dirty and intentions murky," the Iranian leader said in quotes carried on state news agency IRNA. He accused Washington of "lying" by saying it had excluded Iran from its coalition, countering that it was Iran that had refused to participate.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington was "not cooperating with Iran" but declined to be drawn on whether it had reached out through the embassy in Baghdad for talks.

"I am not going to get into a back and forth," he said. "I don't think that's constructive, frankly." Islamic State fighters have set off alarms across the Middle East since June when they swept across northern Iraq, seizing cities, slaughtering prisoners, proclaiming a caliphate to rule over all Muslims and ordering non-Sunnis to convert or die.

IS fighters, known for beheading their enemies or captives, raised the stakes for the West by cutting off the heads of two Americans and a Briton in videos posted on the Internet that showed the prisoners bound in orange jumpsuits.