Kerry: Iran link not off-limits

Talks on Islamic State only aim; ayatollah disparaging

France's President Francois Hollande, left, talks with Iraqi counterpart Fouad Massoum ahead of a conference with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, French President Francois Hollande and diplomats from around the world, at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, Monday, Sept. 15, 2014. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
France's President Francois Hollande, left, talks with Iraqi counterpart Fouad Massoum ahead of a conference with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, French President Francois Hollande and diplomats from around the world, at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, Monday, Sept. 15, 2014. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

PARIS -- Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that President Barack Obama's administration will keep the door open to confidential communications with Iran on the security crisis in Iraq, despite criticism from Iran's supreme leader, who said the American advocacy for bombing Islamic militants, their common enemy, was absurd.

The comments came as U.S. lawmakers raced to authorize an expanded mission to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels, with House Republicans preparing legislation backing a central plank of Obama's strategy against the Islamic State group.

The meeting Monday of foreign ministers from Asia, the Middle East and the West was a first step toward deciding who will participate in a multilayered offensive against the Islamic State group. As envisioned by France and Iraq, the effort would include intensifying airstrikes, cutting off financing, and helping Baghdad cope through humanitarian aid and reconstruction. There will be no foreign combat troops on the ground, however.

As the conference began, two French jets took off in France's first reconnaissance missions over Iraq. Later, the U.S., which has led airstrikes over Iraq since August, said it had taken the first step in expanding the fight against Islamic State militants, going to the aid of Iraqi security forces near Baghdad who were being attacked by enemy fighters.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees Middle East operations, said the strikes destroyed six Islamic State vehicles and one of the group's fighting positions. U.S. officials said the Iraqi forces requested assistance when they came under fire from militants.

More than two dozen countries pledged to help in the fight, but Kerry acknowledged that the U.S. had opposed a role for Iran at the Paris conference.

Both King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and top officials from the United Arab Emirates had informed the U.S. that they would not attend the meetings in Paris if Iran was present, said Kerry, who also stressed that the U.S. would not coordinate militarily with the Iranians.

But Kerry said U.S. officials were still prepared to talk to Iranian officials about Iraq and Syria, including on the margins of negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, which will resume in New York on Thursday.

Just because Iranians were not invited to the Paris conference, Kerry said, "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."

Kerry said that "having a channel of communication on one of the biggest issues in the world today is common sense."

Still, Kerry acknowledged that previous attempts made by Deputy Secretary of State William Burns to draw the Iranians into a discussion of regional issues on the margins of earlier rounds of talks had not been productive.

"The confidential discussions never got to that sort of substance," Kerry said.

In Tehran, the tone was quite different. Iranian officials gave out flurries of statements to local reporters Monday, saying they had rejected multiple invitations by the U.S. to join the coalition. Never, they asserted, would Iran consider working with the U.S. to cleanse the region of terrorists, who the Iranians asserted had been created and nurtured by the West.

The country's highest leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, indicated that no matter who had invited whom, Iran would only watch as the coalition tries to bomb the Islamic State.

On Monday, as Khamenei was discharged from the hospital after a prostate operation, he said that he had enjoyed his time as a patient because he had "a hobby," which was "listening to Americans making statements on combating ISIS -- it was really amusing," a statement posted on his personal website read, using an alternate name for the Islamic State.

"Of course," he said, such statements are "absurd, hollow and biased."

Khamenei, who has long argued that the U.S. and other Western countries have had a hand in the creation and swift expansion of the Islamic State, gave details on what he said were several instances of outreach by U.S. officials, asking Iran to participate.

Khamenei said that though some Iranian officials wanted to consider the offer, he vetoed it.

"I said we will not accompany America in this matter because they have got dirty intentions and hands," he said. "How can it be possible to cooperate with the United States in such conditions?"

The real goal of the U.S.-led coalition is to be able to bomb Iraq and Syria with impunity, Khamenei said, revealing increasing worries of U.S. drones hovering over the region.

"They seek pretexts to interfere in Iraq and Syria, just as they did in Pakistan, where it can commit any crime it wants," Khamenei said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif declined a request by Kerry, the ayatollah said.

Kerry did not respond directly to questions about Khamenei's claims.

Congressional input

The Obama administration said a training operation is needed for Syrian rebels to establish credible, local ground forces to accompany U.S. airstrikes against the militants. The U.S. plans to develop moderate forces in Saudi Arabia before helping them return to the battlefield. It's unclear how long they will need to be battle-ready or how the U.S. can ensure their attention remains on fighting extremists and not just the Syrian government.

The House and Senate plan to take up the measure but are on a tight schedule, looking to wrap up work Friday before an almost two-month recess in preparation for November's midterm elections.

The authorization under consideration will likely be included as an amendment to a spending bill Congress must pass to keep the government open until mid-December. That would give lawmakers the opportunity to hold a separate debate and vote on the matter -- something members of both parties want.

The House's measure would provide lawmakers with information on the vetting process and which groups are being recruited. The administration didn't ask for money to conduct the arming and training mission because it expects foreign donors to fund the program, a House aide said. In any case, the Pentagon has billions of dollars in wartime contingency funds it can ask Congress to release.

The measure doesn't authorize U.S. combat troops in Iraq or Syria or explicitly ban them, reflecting a congressional divide between hawks seeking tougher action than that proposed by Obama and lawmakers weary from more than a decade of U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It also compels the Pentagon to present Congress with a plan 15 days before any training begins, according to a summary released by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif.

The administration isn't likely to protest the conditions. It has sent more than 1,000 troops to Iraq to provide military assistance and bolster security of U.S. diplomatic facilities and personnel. But Obama, too, opposes any U.S. ground offensive.

Democrats are reviewing the proposal. Republicans were to gather for internal talks this morning. A House vote could be held Thursday, by which time lawmakers will have had opportunities to question the administration's top national security officials. The Senate would then follow.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will brief House and Senate committees today and Thursday, with Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey also testifying. Kerry will appear before separate panels Wednesday and Thursday.

Obama's approach to fighting the Islamic State largely sidesteps Congress. The president isn't asking for permission to expand strikes in Iraq and target the militants' operational bases and command structures in Syria, a stance that is a source of consternation for some Democrats and Republicans who say the Constitution demands that the legislative branch declare war.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is introducing a bill that would limit U.S. engagement to 18 months and rule out military action outside Iraq or Syria.

In the Senate, Democrat Tim Kaine of Virginia and Republican Bob Corker of Tennessee have led similar efforts.

Obama has authorized airstrikes inside Syria as part of a broad campaign to root out the Islamic State, though no strikes have yet been launched in the country.

U.S. officials have ruled out direct coordination with Syrian President Bashar Assad and insist that a campaign against the Islamic State will not strengthen the Syrian dictator's hold on power. However, senior administration officials said Monday that the U.S. would retaliate against Assad's air defenses if he went after American planes launching airstrikes in his country.

Officials said the U.S. has a good sense of where the Syrian air defenses, along with their command and control centers, are located. If Assad were to use those capabilities to threaten U.S. forces, it would put his air defenses at risk, according to the officials, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the matter.

Asked Monday about the prospect of striking Assad's regime if his forces targeted Americans, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that there will be "rules of engagement that are related to any military orders the president directs."

"It won't surprise you to know that there are contingencies related to self-defense when it comes to these sorts of rules of engagement," he said.

Also on Monday, Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department is launching a series of pilot programs in cities around the country to deal with American extremists intent on joining the fighting in the Middle East.

The programs are designed in part to detect American extremists who are looking to join terror organizations, including the Islamic State, and will bring together religious leaders, prosecutors and community representatives.

"Today, few threats are more urgent than the threat posed by violent extremism. And with the emergence of groups like ISIL, and the knowledge that some Americans are attempting to travel to countries like Syria and Iraq to take part in ongoing conflicts, the Justice Department is responding appropriately," Holder said Monday, using another abbreviation for the Islamic State group.

The Justice Department did not immediately reveal which cities will be part of the pilot programs.

Rasmussen sums up

Also on Monday, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said members of the U.S.-led alliance must stand shoulder to shoulder to confront global security threats, including those from Russia and the Islamic State.

In his Brussels farewell speech as NATO's top civilian official, Rasmussen said the alliance finds itself on the front line of a geopolitical division between "tolerance and fanaticism," and "democracy and totalitarianism."

"We must stand strong as a force for freedom," Rasmussen said. He said NATO and its member nations must face the fact that the new security challenges it is now confronting could last for years.

Rasmussen's five-year term as NATO secretary-general ends Sept. 30. He spoke at a Brussels gathering of the Carnegie Europe think tank.

Rasmussen said NATO must be ready to use military force. In a question-and-answer session that followed his speech, he said he favored the use of force against the Islamic State organization, which he said threatens not only governments in the Arab world but also Western societies through the export of terrorism.

He said NATO is not currently considering involvement in such operations. He denounced the mass killings that the Islamic State militants have carried out in territory that it has seized, saying the group's actions are "close to genocide."

Information for this article was contributed by Michael R. Gordon, Thomas Erdbrink and David D. Kirkpatrick of The New York Times; and by Bradley Klapper, Donna Cassata, Elaine Ganley, Lara Jakes, Jamey Keaten, Sylvie Corbet, Angela Charlton, Lori Hinnant, Ali Akbar Dareini, John-Thor Dahlburg and staff members of The Associated Press.

A Section on 09/16/2014

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