--- title: Report: Obama Sent Secret Letter to Ayatullah Khamenei description: President Barack Obama secretly wrote Iran’s Ayatullah Ali Khamenei last month seeking to find shared ground, according to a media report canonical: https://time.com/3564928/report-obama-sent-secret-letter-to-ayatollah-khamenei/ author: Noah Rayman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-06T18:58:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T11:17:10.733Z article:section: Politics og:title: Report: Obama Sent Secret Letter to Ayatullah Khamenei og:description: President Barack Obama secretly wrote Iran’s Ayatullah Ali Khamenei last month seeking to find shared ground, according to a media report og:url: https://time.com/3564928/report-obama-sent-secret-letter-to-ayatollah-khamenei/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd138b3570617149/698765f12dce0129dc9db7db/obama-iran.jpg?branch=production&width=1096&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1096 og:image:height: 617 og:image:alt: From Left: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Barack Obama og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Report: Obama Sent Secret Letter to Ayatullah Khamenei twitter:description: President Barack Obama secretly wrote Iran’s Ayatullah Ali Khamenei last month seeking to find shared ground, according to a media report twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd138b3570617149/698765f12dce0129dc9db7db/obama-iran.jpg?branch=production&width=1096&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Report: Obama Sent Secret Letter to Ayatullah Khamenei  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Nov 6, 2014 6:58 PM UTC  From left: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei and U.S. President Barack Obama From left: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei and U.S. President Barack ObamaReuters; Getty Images  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Nov 6, 2014 6:58 PM UTC President Barack Obama [wrote a secret letter to Iran’s Ayatullah Ali Khamenei](http://online.wsj.com/articles/obama-wrote-secret-letter-to-irans-khamenei-about-fighting-islamic-state-1415295291?tesla=y&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10733299186635963427804580259091373963342.html&fpid=2,7,121,122,201,401,641,1009) last month, laying out a shared interest in fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), according to a media report based on anonymous sources. Obama used the letter to try to win support for the U.S.-led strikes against the Sunni Islamist group and to push for a deal over Iran’s nuclear program ahead of a Nov. 24 deadline, the _Wall Street Journal_ reports. Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, [has been critical of U.S.-led strikes](http://time.com/3455630/americas-real-problem-in-iran-ayatullah-khamenei/), claiming the West is using ISIS as an excuse to intervene in the Middle East, and has been highly skeptical of the nuclear talks being conducted under the purview of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. At a White House news conference on Thursday, spokesperson Josh Earnest said he could not confirm the letter. [Read more at the _Wall Street Journal_](http://online.wsj.com/articles/obama-wrote-secret-letter-to-irans-khamenei-about-fighting-islamic-state-1415295291?tesla=y&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10733299186635963427804580259091373963342.html&fpid=2,7,121,122,201,401,641,1009) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3564928/report-obama-sent-secret-letter-to-ayatollah-khamenei/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3564928/report-obama-sent-secret-letter-to-ayatollah-khamenei/"},"headline":"Report: Obama Sent Secret Letter to Ayatullah Khamenei","datePublished":"2014-11-06T18:58:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:17:10.733Z","description":"The White House has not confirmed the letter","url":"https://time.com/3564928/report-obama-sent-secret-letter-to-ayatollah-khamenei/","keywords":["White House","Iran","Hassan Rouhani","Syria","Iraq","President Barack Obama"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd138b3570617149/698765f12dce0129dc9db7db/obama-iran.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Noah Rayman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd138b3570617149/698765f12dce0129dc9db7db/obama-iran.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"From Left: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Barack Obama","caption":"From Left: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Barack Obama","creditText":"Reuters; Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3564928/report-obama-sent-secret-letter-to-ayatollah-khamenei/","name":"Report: Obama Sent Secret Letter to Ayatullah Khamenei"}}]}] ```