XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: behead@democrats.com   
      
   PARIS –Iran has rejected a U.S. appeal to join a global fight   
   against Islamic State militants, the country’s top religious and   
   political figure said Monday, as Western and Arab diplomats   
   gathered to frame strategies against the terror network that   
   controls large areas of Iraq and Syria.   
      
   Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Iran refused   
   the American request because of Washington’s “evil intentions,”   
   the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.   
      
   Reuters quoted Khamenei as telling Iran’s state television that   
   the American request was “hollow and self-serving,” echoing   
   Iran’s claims that Western nations are seeking to expand their   
   influence in the region as part of the Islamic State battles.   
      
   The United States did not deny the outreach and said discussions   
   with Iran will continue — underscoring Iran’s influence in the   
   region but also showing the political complexities of bringing   
   Iran into the emerging international alliance against the   
   Islamic State.   
      
   Iran was excluded from an international conference in Paris on   
   Monday devoted to coordinating strategy against the militants.   
   Secretary of State John F. Kerry has said Iran’s presence would   
   be inappropriate because of its military involvement in the   
   Syrian civil war.   
      
   But Iran also sees the Islamic State as a prime threat to its   
   deep interests in Iraq and Syria. Iran already has sent its   
   allied Shiite militias in Iraq to fight with Western-backed   
   Kurds against the Islamic State.   
      
   Khamenei said the American offer to participate in countering   
   the militants came before the public U.S. opposition to Iran’s   
   attendance at the Paris conference, but he did not give further   
   details.   
      
   Although details of the U.S.-Iranian discussion remain vague, it   
   appears to have been an offer of behind-the-scenes cooperation   
   rather than public partnership.   
      
   http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/iran-wont-team-with-us-   
   against-islamic-state/2014/09/15/92ea7648-3cd8-11e4-a430-   
   b82a3e67b762_story.html   
      
       
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)