Will not coordinate with US on Syria

“Iran will never co-ordinate with the US as far as conflicts in Syria are concerned”, declared Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. The US Secretary of State, John Kerry had recently stated that Iran was proving helpful to the US in the resolution of the Syrian conflict. The declaration of Iran’s supreme leader naturally assumes significance on the background of this statement.

Khamenei pronounced very clearly that Iran just did not want to co-ordinate with the US over Syria or any other matters of the region. In his statement on his website, he in fact slammed the US for asking for help to resolve the conflicts in the gulf. The US refused to acknowledge Iran’s growing power and influence in the Gulf and it was still engaged in trying to contain Iran’s influence. Given this background, why at all did the US wish for Iran’s co-operation to solve the crisis in the region? Khamenei asked, underlining once again that co-operation with the US was not going to be possible.

He warned further, that the US ought to stop interfering in the region. The talks between the two countries had not really proved fruitful in any case. Despite the negotiations last year, the US still indulged in hostility against Iran. He also expressed that be it the Obama administration or the Congress, they were all against Iran.

Moreover, Iran had had nothing substantial to gain from the negotiations, Khamenei claimed. International Banks were still fearful of transacting business with Iran because of the US sanctions. Consequently, the situation had hardly changed as far as Iran was concerned.

It was only two days ago that Kerry has stated that Iran was proving helpful to the US in the anti-IS mission in Iraq and that Iran’s deployment of troupes in Iraq had been able to contain the impact of the IS. Kerry had even said that the US expected Iran’s co-operation in the matter of the Gulf crisis. It was to this proposition from the US that Khamenei was reacting.

Besides, some anti-Iran groups have been accusing Iran of co-ordinating with the US in Syria and Iraq. At the same time, that Iran and the US have conflicting interests with respect to Syria and Iraq and that the resultant clash of interests in Syria and Iraq is evident, are facts that have now come to light. It is on this background that Kerry’s statement about Iran being helpful in Syria, comes forth as shocking.