Kerry Says US Open To Hold Talks With Iran On ISIL

US Secretary of State John Kerry says the United States is ready to hold talks with Iran to tackle the ISIL threat, despite Tehran’s opposition to cooperate with Washington over the issue, Press TV reported.

Speaking at an international conference in Paris, Kerry said on Monday the US is open to discuss the issue with Iran on the margins of the P5+1 negotiations in New York that will resume on the sidelines of UN General Assembly later this week, the New York Times reported.

The Paris conference, dubbed the International Conference on Peace and Security in Iraq, is aimed at helping the Iraqi government fight the terrorist group.

Kerry admitted that the Iranians were not invited to the conference, but it “doesn’t mean that we are opposed to the idea of communicating to find out if they will come on board or under what circumstances or whether there is the possibility of a change.”
Iran says it was requested by the United States to hold talks on ISIL, but the Islamic Republic rejected the offer.
On Monday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said that he has told Iranian officials not to cooperate with the US on the issue because of America’s malicious intentions.

Ayatollah Khamenei said that Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was also asked by US officials to participate in talks to resolve the ISIL crisis, but he declined the offer.

In the past, US officials also formed a coalition of a few countries against the Syrian government but they could not do anything, and the same will happen to the coalition on Iraq, the Leader said.

US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki has also said that the US did have discussions with Iran about combating ISIL.
“It’s no secret that we have had discussions (with) Iran about the counter-ISIL efforts in Iraq on margins of our P5+1 talks on nuclear issue,” Psaki tweeted. (Cihan/Trend az)