US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday vehemently denied that Washington offered to discuss co-operation with Iran in the fight against Islamic militancy if a nuclear deal was reached with Tehran. "There is no linkage whatsoever of the nuclear discussions with any other issue," Kerry told reporters in Beijing, where he was attending annual Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) forum meetings.
"And I want to make that absolutely clear. No conversation, no agreement, no exchange, nothing has created any kind of a deal or agreement with respect to any of the events that are at stake in the Middle East." The top US diplomat added a slight qualification by saying that he was not aware of any such discussions, but quickly expressed confidence that he would be in any loop.
"I'm confident I am aware of what the president has been doing and saying with respect to this issue," he said. Kerry spoke after the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that US President Barack Obama has secretly written to the supreme leader of Iran, which is overwhelmingly Shiite, to discuss possible co-operation against Sunni Islamic militants provided there is a nuclear deal.
Obama sent the letter last month to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei describing what he called a "shared fight" against the militant Islamic State group, the paper said, citing "people briefed on the correspondence". "No one to my knowledge has confirmed or denied whether or not there is a letter, or was a letter.