Kerry: US Open To Cooperation With Iran On Chaos In Iraq

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., right, speaks with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., left, after a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Dec. 3, 2012, to urge Senate ap... Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., right, speaks with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., left, after a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Dec. 3, 2012, to urge Senate approval of an international agreement for protecting the rights of individuals with disabilities. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) MORE LESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry says the Obama administration is willing to talk with Iran over deteriorating security conditions in Iraq and is not ruling out potential U.S.-Iranian military cooperation in stemming the advance of Sunni extremists. Kerry also says U.S. drone strikes “may well” be an option.

In a Monday interview with Yahoo! News, Kerry said Washington is “open to discussions” with Tehran if the Iranians can help end the violence and restore confidence in the Iraqi government. Asked about possible military cooperation with Iran, Kerry said he would “not rule out anything that would be constructive.” However, he stressed that any contacts with Iran would move “step-by-step.”

U.S. officials said earlier there is a possibility that a senior American diplomat may discuss Iraq with an Iranian delegation at nuclear talks in Vienna.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  1. Kerry said Washington is “open to discussions” with Tehran if the Iranians can help

    Hrumpph! Ex-Vice President Darth Vader would never approve, I can assure you of that! Which means his bumbling toady W. would never go along either!

  2. Avatar for darcy darcy says:

    Down the rabbit hole we go!

    Did this SoS learn nothing from Vietnam?

  3. Did this SoS learn nothing from Vietnam?

    What’s your solution, then.? Not what we should have been done, but what should Obama do now? This is a genocide issue in part, so please factor that in. Your solutions will be timely - a bunch of Turkmens are facing beheadings right now.

    So, let them die, like in Rwanda, and not lift a finger? And reject out of hand any question of letting the Iranians help out? What would that mean – letting all the potential victims die but making sure we get sole credit?

  4. Iran could be a useful ally in this situation.
    They might also be helpful in breaking the Ukraine-Russia stalemate in the sense that if we can encourage more Iran/Iraq cooperation in so far as selling oil and natural gas to Europe it would de-escalate a hostage situation by encouraging more energy independence.
    Such cooperation might also be noted in ongoing talks re Iran’s nuclear capabilities and aspirations.
    Heck, just on the basic karma level, this might be good penance and a way to pivot away from the recent decades, when the US interfered with the two countries’ affairs: overthrew Iran’s leader, propped up the brutal Shah of Iran, sold arms to Iraq in the 1980s to use against Iran, invaded Iraq in 2003 over a lie, etc.
    And who better to recognize this emerging opportunity than our Community Organizer-in-Chief?

  5. What? Obama doing exactly what McCain’s conjoined twin Lindsey said he should do on Sunday? This is an outrage! Impeach! Impeach! Because clearly he’s not going to do it the way Graham said he should in the secret undisclosed codicil of his explicit statement and thus Graham’s approval was conditional and cannot be given to to the way this president is rashly and irresponsibly carrying out that suggestion by cooperating with the people who were, after all, responsible for 9/11. Impeach, I say!

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