Obama writes another friendly letter to the Ayatollah

Earlier today -- in "Pope calls Islamic extremism 'product of the West'" -- I suggested that President Obarmy might be more interested in pursuing his foreign policy goals in the Middle East than in helping that area's Christian to resist Islamic extremism. Certainly that's the view of Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II, whom I quoted.

Neither the Patriarch nor Walt should be surprised, then, by today's report in the Wall Street Journal that the Prez recently wrote a secret letter -- the fourth such missive -- to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini, about their "shared interest" in fighting ISIS.

The Prez also expressed his hope -- he still uses that word a lot, even though hope is not a plan -- that they could make a deal on Iran's nuclear programme... preferably before the US mid-term elections. Walt supposes that the letter was entrusted to USPS and has yet to arrive in Tehran.

Just kidding. According to the WSJ report, November 3rd wasn't really the redline deadline. They say the Leader of the Free World(TM) stressed that any co-operation on fighting the Islamic State is contingent on Iran reaching such an agreement on its nukes by the November 24th diplomatic deadline.

The White House has refused to confirm the existence of the letter, saying it would not comment on Mr. Obama's "private correspondence". In response to questions yesterday, spokesthingy Josh Earnest could only say, "I can tell you that the policy that the president and his administration have articulated about Iran remains unchanged."

Republican leaders, however, had lots to say. House Speaker John Boehner (rhymes with "gainer", not "loner") said he doesn't trust Iran's leaders, and is opposed to bringing them into the fight against IS.

Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham called it "outrageous" that the president would approach Iran, given its support for the Syrian government and Shia groups such as Lebanon's Hezbollah.
In a joint statement, they said, "The administration needs to understand that this Iranian regime cares more about trying to weaken America and push us out of the Middle East than cooperating with us."

Still confused about who's doing what with whom and to whom in the Middle East? Read "Are you confused about the war in the Middle East?" [Duh! Like that's gonna help. Ed.]

OK, I can do better than that. Read "Should the West be meddling in the Middle East? Good question!"