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Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hasnt approved cooperating with U.S. forces against Islamic State, according to a senior Iranian lawmaker, even as the two countries have discussed containing the extremist group.

Its impossible for Iran to cooperate with the U.S. military, Esmail Kowsari, deputy chairman of the Iranian parliaments National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said in a phone interview from Tehran yesterday. The Islamic militants were a creation of the U.S., the Zionists and Saudi Arabia and now the U.S. wants us to clean their mess.

NATO leaders discussed on a sideline of their meeting this week in Wales how to go about fighting Islamic State, after the group uploaded Internet videos showing two American reporters being decapitated and a threat to kill a British citizen next.

U.S. and Iranian officials have conducted sporadic discussions about Islamic State at talks held this summer over the Persian Gulf nations nuclear program, as well as communications through a third party, said two U.S. officials with knowledge of the contacts.

The aim of the talks is to avoid accidental collisions between Iranian-backed Shiite militias and American-supported Kurdish and Iraqi forces, including the Baghdad governments air force, according to the U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic issues.

The British Broadcasting Corp. had earlier reported, citing people it didnt identify, that Khamenei had given his consent to cooperation with the U.S. military.

U.S. airstrikes against the Sunni militants in Iraq last month helped Iraqi government forces break a siege of the Shiite-dominated town of Amirli. Obama said North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies are prepared to join military action to battle Islamic State extremists.

There was unanimity over the last two days that ISIL poses a significant threat to NATO members, and there was a recognition that we have to take action, the president said at a news conference in Newport, Wales, wrapping up the annual NATO summit.

The U.S. is seeking to build a coalition against Islamic State, with Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel due to travel to the Middle East next week. Any suggestion of cooperation between Iran and the U.S. may complicate Western efforts to rally Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab powers hostile to Iran to the cause.

Even as it seeks further regional support to combat Islamic State, the U.S. wont be working with Iran on strategy or policy in Iraq, according to the two U.S. officials.

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Iran Lawmaker Says Khamenei Hasnt Cleared Cooperation With U.S.