Iran, the United States and the Islamic State … Saving Face

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has broken his silence. After his recovery from surgery, he has made angry statements against America’s passive attitude toward the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, especially after failing to invite Iran to the Paris conference dedicated to discussing ways of confronting the Islamic State.

With his anger, the Iranian leader clearly threatened Americans that if the intervention in Iraq and Syria against Islamic State were to take place without permission, they would face the same problems they have encountered during the past 10 years. This statement is a clear confession that Iran is explicitly behind all the violence in Iraq. Khamenei’s anger did not stop at this point, but continued, saying that the Americans had asked for his country’s help to confront Islamic State, but that he had refused because “their hands are dirty.”

Observers of the Islamic State situation and Iranian-American actions are aware that this is not accurate. Hashemi Rafsanjani declared, as reported by the Fars news agency, that Iran can cooperate with America to confront the Islamic State, if America were honest about that.

This past June a statement from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was quoted in the same newspaper about the danger of Islamic State, in which he said that there were several formal and informal ways of communicating with the Americans. He added that if they saw the United States move against terrorist groups, then they could consider cooperation, but that thus far the Iranians had not seen any movement on the America side.

Prior to the Paris conference, the Fars agency quoted the Iranian ambassador in Iraq saying that Tehran would be happy to participate in the Paris conference. What is the meaning of all this?

It is obvious that Iran feels embarrassed about not being invited to the Paris conference. Previously, Iran was not even invited to the international alliance against the Islamic State, a conference held to lay down the basis of fighting the Islamic State, that took place in Saudi Arabia.

This is what led the supreme leader of Iran to make these furious statements. Therefore, Iran is locked in a battle to save its dignity both internally and externally, especially after the American statements that Iran is not, and will not be in the future, invited to an alliance against the Islamic State.

Simply put, this is the dilemma. Add to this the openness of Iraq to its neighbors, especially Saudi Arabia, and the American declaration announcing their intention to arm the Syrian opposition in order to hit the Islamic State in Syria, and it is clear how all this has led to the Iranians’ anger and confusion. We have written about this previously in this publication, under the title ”Al-Assad and Investment of Islamic State Again” on Aug. 26, where we stated that the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria would leave Iran with two choices: Either negotiate over the head of al-Assad or form an alliance with the Islamic State, which could be considered perfect political suicide.

This seems to be what is happening now is Iran, at least in the face of Iraqi and Syrian public opinion.