US and Iran rule out cooperation on jihadists advance

Iraqi government forces fight to stop the advance of Sunni militants after winning control of the city of Tal Afar and two villages northeast of Baghdad. Washington said it was weighing the use of drone strikes against the jihadist fighters. The situation is so alarming, US Secretary of State John Kerry said he was open to cooperating with arch-foe Iran to resolve the week-long crisis. The Guardian reported US and Iraqi officials confirm they had a “brief discussion” on the sidelines of nuclear talks in Vienna, but both said military cooperation was not in the agenda. Jihadists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, also referred to as ISIL) reportedly killed scores of Iraqi soldiers in a “horrifying” massacre that has drawn international condemnation. CNN analyst Charles Lister said ISIS is a formidable, fanatical force bent on rapid results. He noted the jihadists had quickly gained recruits, cash and  weapons in the offensive. A visiting fellow of the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar, Lister added ISIS has a weakness– the uprising is made up of an unstable alliance with Sunni groups, which may fail in the long term once ISIS’ brutality stats.

Read more on Rappler.

Read more on the prospects of US-Iran cooperation on The Guardian.

Read more on the “weakness” of the ISIS on CNN.