Iran’s Supreme Leader has approved cooperation with the US as part of the fight against Islamic State (IS) in Iraq, sources have told BBC Persian.
Ayatollah Khamenei authorised his top commander to coordinate military operations with US, Iraqi and Kurdish forces, sources in Tehran said.
Iran has traditionally opposed US involvement in Iraq, an Iranian ally.
However, Shia Iran sees the extremist Sunni IS group, which views Shias as heretics, as a serious threat.
Last month US air strikes helped Iranian-backed Shia militia and Kurdish forces break a two-month siege by the IS of the Shia town of Amerli.
The IS has taken over swathes of northern and western Iraq and eastern Syria in recent months.
US forces began carrying out air strikes on IS positions in August after they took over several cities in northern Iraq.
Elite unit
Ayatollah Khamenei previously objected to outside “interference” – including by the US – in Iraq. Now, Iran seems to be taking steps to work more closely with the United States, says BBC Persian’s Kasra Naji.
Sources said Ayatollah Khamenei sanctioned Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force – an elite overseas unit of the Revolutionary Guards – to work with forces fighting the IS, including US forces.
General Soleimani has been active in the past few months in strengthening the defences of Baghdad with the help of Iraqi Shia militias.
His picture has appeared on the internet showing him in northern Iraq around the time of the breaking of the siege of Amerli – an indication that this cooperation may have already started.
‘No boots on the ground’
Meanwhile, Nato leaders meeting at a summit in Wales said they wanted to form a military coalition to take on the IS.
“We need to attack them in ways that prevent them from taking over territory, to bolster the Iraqi security forces and others in the region who are prepared to take them on, without committing troops of our own,” Reuters news agency quoted US Secretary of State John Kerry as saying.
“Obviously I think that’s a red line for everybody here: No boots on the ground,” he said.
The brutality of the IS – including mass killings and abductions of members of religious and ethnic minorities, as well as beheadings of soldiers and journalists – has sparked outrage across the world.
Last month, Iraqi and Kurdish forces pushed IS forces back from parts of northern Iraq, but the group still controls what it has declared as a caliphate stretching across Syria and Iraq.
Since the Islamic revolution in 1979, the US and Iran have had a hostile relationship with each other.
