Secretary of State John F. Kerry effectively gave the green light Wednesday for Iran to use direct military force against the Islamic State movement in Iraq, but said there are no plans for U.S. forces to coordinate with their Iranian counterparts in battling the extremists.
“I think it’s self-evident that if Iran is taking on ISIL in some particular place and it’s confined to taking on ISIL and it has an impact, it’s going to be — the net effect is positive,” Mr. Kerry told reporters at meeting in Brussels of the U.S.-led coalition taking military action against the group in Syria and Iraq.
His comments came amid news reports that U.S. military officials believe Iran has conducted airstrikes against targets of the Islamic State — known by the acronyms ISIL and ISIS — inside Iraq during recent days.
Recent months have seen regional analysts warn that significant Iranian military involvement in the conflict could amplify already tense sectarian divisions in the region, since Iran is a Shiite Muslim power and the Islamic State is a Sunni Muslim extremist group.
The Financial Times and other news outlets cited unnamed U.S. officials on Wednesday as saying there were indications that Iranian forces have flown operations against Islamic State targets close to the Iran-Iraq border.
But Iran is so far not an official member of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the extremists, and Mr. Kerry stressed that there are no plans to make it a member or to work directly with the Islamic Republic in the fight against the Islamic State.
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“We are not — not only not coordinating militarily right now, but there are no plans at this time to coordinate militarily,” said the secretary of state, who stressed that U.S. officials are allowing the Iraqi government to manage different military actions that outside forces, including the U.S. and Iran, are taking against the extremists.
“We rely on the Iraqi Government to de-conflict whatever control of their airspace may in fact need that de-confliction,” he said.
Mr. Kerry also refused to confirm the reports of Iranian bombing missions against the Islamic State.
“I’m not going to make any announcements or confirm or deny the reported military action of another country in Iraq,” Mr. Kerry said. “It’s up to them or up to the Iraqis to do that, if it indeed took place.”
“We are obviously flying our missions over Iraq, and we coordinate those missions with the Iraqi government,” he said.
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
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