Iran: We Turned Down US' ISIS Offer

Iran wants the world to know that the United States came knocking—and it didn't answer the door. Though it was previously reported that John Kerry had barred the country from joining a coalition formed to combat the self-proclaimed Islamic State, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei today said that it was Iran who turned America down. "They are lying," he said, per Reuters. As for how it went down, Khamenei says the American ambassador in Iraq asked the Iranian ambassador in Iraq "for a session to discuss coordinating a fight against" ISIS. And while some Iranian officials were receptive to the idea, "I was opposed," Khamenei said. "I saw no point in cooperating with a country whose hands are dirty and intentions murky."

Further, Khamenei said Kerry "personally" made a request for cooperation to Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, reports the Los Angeles Times. The Washington Post reports that the US did not deny making the appeal, but notes that details remain murky, and that the offer appears to have been one intending to establish "behind-the-scenes cooperation rather than [a] public partnership." A rep for the State Department did make clear that the US has no intention of coordinating militarily with Iran. (More Iran stories.)