For the first time in days following reports by American media that US President Barack Obama has written to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei to invite Tehran to cooperate in the campaign against the Islamic State (IS) militant group, a senior cleric acknowledged that such a communication had taken place.
Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, chairman of the Guardian Council, said Obama sent the letter to the Leader and asked Iran to join the fight "to eliminate IS terror group despite the fact that they (the US) themselves have created the Daesh (IS) terrorist group," IRNA reported on Monday.
Jannati also said, "Obama in his letter expressed pleasure that the Leader of the (Islamic) Revolution has regained his health," after he underwent a minor operation in September.
The Wall Street Journal reported early this month that Obama had sent a secret letter to the Leader in October describing Washington-Tehran shared interests regarding the Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.
Last week the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, said Obama had written letters to Iran on various occasions, adding that some of them have been responded to.
“The letters of the US president have a history of some years, and in some instances, there have been responses to these letters,” said Shamkhani at a weekly meeting of national security officials, the Mehr news agency reported.
