Iran says it rebuffed US invitation to join anti-Islamic State coalition

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1410798330903_1623" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.0000019073486px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"> By Mehrdad Balali</div> <div class="body-slot-mod" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17.3076953887939px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em 10px; max-width: 300px;"> <div class="yom-remote"> <div class="" id="mediacontentrelatedstory_container"> </div> </div> </div> <div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1410798330903_1621" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.0000019073486px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"> DUBAI (Reuters) - <span capspos="51" class="cap-annotation cap-annotation_s2s" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(50, 79, 225); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px;">Iran</span>’s supreme leader<span capspos="73" class="cap-annotation cap-annotation_s2s" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1410798330903_1626" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(50, 79, 225); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px;">Ayatollah Ali Khamenei</span> said on Monday he had vetoed a U.S. invitation to cooperate in fighting<span capspos="168" class="cap-annotation cap-annotation_s2s" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1410798330903_1719" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(50, 79, 225); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px;">Islamic State</span>, but Washington insisted it would not coordinate militarily with Iran against the militants.</div> <div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1410798330903_1627" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.0000019073486px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"> “The American ambassador in <span capspos="318" class="cap-annotation cap-annotation_s2s" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(50, 79, 225); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px;">Iraq</span> asked our ambassador (in Iraq) for a session to discuss coordinating a fight against Daesh (Islamic State),” said Khamenei, in quotes carried on state news agency IRNA.</div> <div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1410798330903_1629" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.0000019073486px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"> “Our ambassador in Iraq reflected this to us, which was welcomed by some (Iranian) officials, but I was opposed. I saw no point in cooperating with a country whose hands are dirty and intentions murky."</div> <div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1410798330903_1631" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.0000019073486px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"> He said it was Iran’s choice not to work with the country the <span capspos="791" class="cap-annotation cap-annotation_s2s" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(50, 79, 225); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px;">Islamic Republic</span> has traditionally called the Great Satan, having also refused similar overtures to Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his deputy Abbas Araqchi.</div> <div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1410798330903_1660" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.0000019073486px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"> Khamenei rejected recent comments by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that Washington was opposed to any Iranian role in a international coalition against Islamic State.</div> <div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1410798330903_1991" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.0000019073486px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"> “Now they (the U.S) are lying, in saying that it is them who excluded us from their coalition, while it was Iran that refused to participate in this collation to begin with,” said Khamenei, 75, who left hospital on Monday following prostate surgery.</div> <div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1410798330903_1995" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.0000019073486px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"> In Paris, a conference opened on Monday to discuss how to curb the jihadist movement that has seized a third of Iraq and Syria. Iran was not represented.</div> <div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1410798330903_1993" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.0000019073486px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"> Khamenei questioned U.S. resolve in fighting Islamic State, which has captured tracts of land in Syria and Iraq and has become the most potent opposition to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Iran's.</div> <div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1410798330903_1617" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.0000019073486px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"> "American officials' comments on forming an anti-Islamic State (alliance) are blank, hollow and self-serving, and contradictions in their behaviors and statements attest to this fact," said Khamenei.</div> <div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1410798330903_1615" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.0000019073486px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"> Khamenei said Washington wanted in Iraq what it had in Pakistan -- "a playground where they can enter freely and bomb at will".</div> <div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1410798330903_1613" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.0000019073486px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"> "The Americans should keep in mind that if they go ahead with such a thing, then the same problems that they faced in Iraq in the past 10 years will come back," he said, referring to years of conflict between U.S. forces and an array of armed Iraqi groups.</div> </div>

Iran says it rebuffed US invitation to join anti-Islamic State coalition

By Mehrdad Balali DUBAI (Reuters) -  Iran ’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei  said on Monday he had vetoed a U.S. invitation...

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