...

Q    Hi.  Iranian officials said yesterday that Iran is ready to work with the United States and its allies to stop Islamic State militants, but they want more flexibility on their nuclear program in exchange.  And I’m wondering what would be the U.S. response to linking those two issues.

MR. EARNEST:  The conversations related to the P5-plus-1 talks have to do with resolving the international community’s concerns about the Iranian nuclear program.  Those conversations to try to resolve those concerns are entirely separate from any of the overlapping interests that Iran may have with the broader international community as it relates to ISIL.

As you’ve heard me discuss on at least a couple of other occasions, it is not in the interest of the Iranian regime for this extremist organization to be wreaking havoc on its doorstep.  So, like the international community, the Iranians are understandably concerned about the gains that ISIL has made in Iraq, and they have indicated that they are ready to fight ISIL.

But the United States will not coordinate any of our military activities with the Iranians.  The United States will not be involved in sharing intelligence with the Iranians.  And the United States will not be in a position of trading aspects of Iran’s nuclear program to secure commitments to take on ISIL.  These two issues are entirely separate.  And the focus of the P5-plus-1 talks will remain on resolving the international community’s concerns about the Iranian nuclear program.

It is possible, as we’ve already indicated a couple of times, that conversations on the sidelines of those talks could occur about Iran’s concerns -- or Iran’s overlapping interest with the international community’s as it relates to ISIL.  As recently as this weekend, the Secretary of State John Kerry was in New York to engage in conversations in the context of the P5-plus-1 talks about resolving the international community’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.  On the sidelines of those broader conversations, he did have a conversation with his Iranian counterpart to discuss ISIL.

I don’t have any additional readout of that meeting, but that is an indication of the approach that we’re taking here, which is that these are two separate matters that will be resolved separately.

Q    So you’ve been clear that the idea of a tradeoff is a non-starter.

MR. EARNEST:  That’s correct.

Q    Has that idea of a tradeoff been overtly made to the United States by Iranian officials and overtly rejected? 

MR. EARNEST:  Well, I believe that there’s a speech that was given by the Iranian leader over the weekend in which this was discussed -- I don’t know if it was a speech or an interview.  But I read news accounts of this proposal, and I’m confident that our views on this topic have been conveyed to the Iranians.  What exactly that conversation was like or how it was brought up by the Iranians or by members of the P5-plus-1, I can’t characterize those conversations other than to say we’ve made clear, both publicly and privately, that the conversations in the context of the P5-plus-1 talks are entirely separate from conversations that the international community, including the United States, may have with the Iranians about ISIL.

...