Our friends over at National Review pulled this little gem. We’ve officially entered foreign policy bizarro world when the Department of State is absolutely refusing to work with Syria, but is open to working with Iran to fight (however they’re defining that) ISIS.
Blitzer asked Department of State Spokesperson Marie Harf if Syria was receiving intelligence through a third party, to which she responded, “Not at all. I can categorically reject that. We will not work with the Assad regime, we will not share intelligence with them, we will not coordinate with them. Period. Full stop. I don’t want to be any clearer than that.”
Pretty clear. Not so clear is the conversation about Iran.
When asked if we would be willing to coordinate with Iran, based on what Secretary Kerry has suggested, Harf said:
“We’re open to conversations with them [Iran]. We’ve already had a few on the sidelines of the nuclear negotiations we’ve had a few months ago in Vienna where we talked to them about Iraq because they know ISIL posses a threat to them as well. So we’re open to having that conversation; we won’t be coordinating with them either. They certainly have a role to play here if they can support the new inclusive government in Iraq… that’s really what all the regional players need to do.”
Ok, then. Iran, we can work with, but Syria is completely and totally out of the question. Good to know.
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