Iran Ayatollah Khamenei Sent Obama Secret Letter: WSJ

REPORT: Iran's Supreme Leader Sent Obama A Secret Letter
In this photo released by the official website of the Iranian supreme leader's office, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sits in a meeting in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2014. Iran's supreme leader underwent prostate surgery on Monday at a government hospital in Tehran, state media said in a rare report on the state of health of the country's top cleric. The 75-year-old, who has final say on all state matters in Iran and has been the country's top leader since 1989, was reported to be recovering.(AP Photo/Office of the Supreme Leader)
In this photo released by the official website of the Iranian supreme leader's office, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sits in a meeting in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2014. Iran's supreme leader underwent prostate surgery on Monday at a government hospital in Tehran, state media said in a rare report on the state of health of the country's top cleric. The 75-year-old, who has final say on all state matters in Iran and has been the country's top leader since 1989, was reported to be recovering.(AP Photo/Office of the Supreme Leader)

(Adds Iran's U.N. mission declines to comment)

WASHINGTON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has responded to overtures from U.S. President Barack Obama amid nuclear talks by sending him a secret letter, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Citing an Iranian diplomat, the paper said the Iranian cleric had written to Obama in recent weeks in response to a presidential letter sent in October.

Obama's letter suggested the possibility of U.S.-Iranian cooperation in fighting Islamic State if a nuclear deal was secured, the paper said, quoting the diplomat.

Khamenei's letter was "respectful" but noncommittal, it quoted the diplomat as saying.

Both the White House and the Iranian mission at the United Nations declined to comment on the report.

Khamenei said this week he could accept a compromise in the nuclear talks and gave his strongest defense yet of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's decision to negotiate with the West, a policy opposed by powerful hardliners at home.

The nuclear talks with the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany are aimed at clinching an accord that would ease Western concerns that Tehran could pursue a covert nuclear weapons program, in return for the lifting of sanctions that have ravaged the Iranian economy.

Negotiators have set a June 30 final deadline for an accord, and Western officials have said they aim to agree on the substance of such a deal by March.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to address the U.S. Congress on Iran on March 3 - to the annoyance of the Obama administration - has vowed "to foil this bad and dangerous agreement." (Reporting by Sandra Maler; Additional reporting by Jeff Mason in San Francisco and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Before You Go

Situation Room

Most Iconic Photos Of Obama's First Term

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot