Officials Reveal US is Cozying Up to Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas

US and Arab officials reveal Obama administration's about-face, including backdoor communication and intelligence cooperation.

By Ari Yashar

First Publish: 10/29/2014, 8:30 AM

Barack Obama

Reuters

 

The same Tuesday night that a senior official in US President Barack Obama's administration was quoted calling Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu "chickens**t," yet more officials indicated the US is warming up to cooperation with Iran - the Islamic regime seeking nuclear weapons that has repeatedly declared its desire to destroy Israel.

Senior US and Arab officials were cited by the Wall Street Journal saying that in recent months, America and Iran have grown closer through cooperation against their "common enemy", the Islamic State (ISIS), as well as over a shared interest in "stability" in Iraq and Afghanistan.

American officials revealed to the paper that Obama's administration has been sending secretive messages to Iran through Iraq's new Shi'ite prime minister Haider al-Abadi, as well as through Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highest ranking Shi'ite cleric in Iraq.

The statement confirms the assessment of a senior Israeli diplomatic source, who two weeks ago warned Obama may be holding secret talks with Iran - just as he was revealed last November to have been holding secret talks for over half a year prior to the recent controversial temporary nuclear agreement, and likewise reportedly had been easing sanctions on Iran for five months ahead of the deal.

It also raises greater concerns over US Secretary of State John Kerry's backtracking after rejecting military cooperation with Iran. According to reports though Iran initially rejected the notion of such cooperation against ISIS, Tehran later said it would consider it - in return for a good deal in the nuclear talks.

Obama's administration reportedly has been very cautious not to upset the Iranians, according to a senior US defense official working on Iraq who was quoted by the Wall Street Journal.

"They (the US) want to focus on ISIL (ISIS) and they are worried about antagonizing the Iranians...they are articulating in high-level interagency meetings that they don't want to do anything that's interpreted by the Iranians as threatening to the regime" of Iranian-ally Bashar Assad, the president of Syria, said the official.

As part of that pussyfooting around the Islamic regime, officials said the US military will play down the annual minesweeping exercise of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, as opposed to previous years when the drill was used to show opposition to growing Iranian naval aggression in the Persian Gulf.
Apparently Iran has been acting reciprocally, with officials saying Iranian Revolutionary Guards have ordered the terrorist groups under its proxy not to attack American sites in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Cozying up to Hamas and Hezbollah too?
The American mollycoddling of Iran has extended to its proxy terror organizations Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon as well, according to officials, who said that despite there being no official cooperation with any of the parties American positions have definitely shifted.

When it comes to Hezbollah, US and Arab officials said US intelligence agencies have given tips on threats by Al Qaeda-linked terrorists in the country to Lebanese security agencies close to or controlled by Hezbollah, including the General Security Directorate.

The revelation confirms statements last month by Lebanese experts, who said America is indirectly giving Hezbollah military aid, with new weapons being sent to the Lebanese army that coordinates with Hezbollah, and US intel reaching Hezbollah.

Hamas has also come in for a precedent setting shift in stance according to senior US officials, who noted that Kerry and other senior American diplomats indirectly negotiated with Hamas leaders such as Khaled Mashaal through Turkish and Qatari intermediaries during ceasefire talks in July.

American communication with the Islamist terrorist organization as it waged war against Israel raises serious question marks, particularly when contrasted to Obama's harsh stance on Israel during the operation, when he cancelled a routine transfer of Hellfire missiles, and ordered greater scrutiny on future shipments.

Summing up the shift, Vali Nasr, dean of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and former Obama administration official told the paper: "our interests and policies are converging with Iran’s. This is a geostrategic reality at this moment, more than a conscious US policy."

Tags: IranHamasUSHezbollahBarack Obama