The administration would not confirm the letter and denied efforts of military cooperation. Romney hits Obama on Iran letter

Mitt Romney slammed President Barack Obama on Friday for reaching out to Iran in the fight against Islamic State militants, calling the president’s recent letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “astonishing” and “an enormous error.”

“I was frankly stunned that the president of the United States would write a letter of that nature and in effect, legitimize a nation and a leadership which is violating international norms and is threatening the world,” the 2012 Republican presidential candidate told the audience of the Israeli American Council’s inaugural national conference at the Washington Hilton.


“To suggest that we might somehow work together is something which is so far beyond the pale, I was speechless as I heard about it,” Romney said. “I simply can’t understand it.”

( Also on POLITICO: Obama reaches out to Iran)

Romney’s comments follow news that Obama wrote a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader as the deadline for a nuclear deal at the end of month draws closer, the Associate Press reported Thursday.

However, while reports said the letter emphasized a shared interest in defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the administration would not confirm the letter and denied efforts of military cooperation with Iran.

“The United States will not cooperate militarily with Iran in that effort,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. “We won’t share intelligence with them.”

Romney said the United States should treat Iran as it did South Africa, in which the country was considered a “pariah” and their leaders shunned from international bodies.

( Also on POLITICO: GOP blasts Obama's Iran letter)

The former Massachusetts governor was warmly welcomed by the audience of more than 700 and received a standing ovation before and after his remarks.

He called Obama’s correspondence with the Iranian leader “an enormous error” and said that Iran’s leadership, for its support and armament of the Assad regime in Syria, “is in part responsible, to a degree, for the elevation of ISIS, for the creation of ISIS.”

“This is the fourth time the president has reached out an open hand to Iran,” Romney said. “It continues to diminish himself and America, these acts of his that unfortunately lead bad people to assume that American can be pushed around and I find it very unfortunate.”

Romney’s criticism echoes that of others on the right including House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, who called the letter “really concerning” and said it does not help America’s relationships with its allies in the region.

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