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Istanbul Irans top commander has been authorized to coordinate military operations with US, Iraqi, and Kurdish forces battling Islamic State (IS) militants in northern Iraq, according to a report today by BBC Persian, citing sources in Tehran.

Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is said to have approved military cooperation with the US,a longstanding adversary,in the fight against what Tehran and Washington view as a common and growing threat.

A source close to Mr. Khameneiquicklydenied that report to The New York Times'Tehran correspondent, however, and government officials later echoed the denial.

Even without an official stamp of approval, both the US and Iranhave found themselveson the same side ofthe Iraqi battlefield since Baghdad's forces collapsed in northern Iraq and Islamic State militants surged in recent months.

TheUS launched airstrikes against IS positionsthat brokea two-month siege on the northern town of Amerlilast weekend.Concurrently, Iranian military advisors were on the ground guiding an eclectic mix of Kurdishpeshmergaforces, Shiite militias, and Iraqi Army troops.

Images posted online show Irans Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, wearing a cap and a checkered scarf but no military insignia, in a desert area purported to be near the Amerli frontline inIraq. The hardline site Raja News today published photographs of Maj. Gen. Soleimani praying with others at the front.

Yet any US-Iran coordinationin the latest iteration of war in Iraq is likely to be tactical only,givendecades of mutual hostilitybetween the two nations.Andpastcooperation efforts especially in Afghanistan, whereIranianofficials and the Revolutionary Guard provided critical targeting and other information to US forcesafter 9/11against the Taliban did not yieldany substantial thaw. Iran also helped the US to bolt together a post-Taliban government in Afghanistan. Nonetheless, President George W. Bush declared in 2002 that Iran was part of an "axis of evil," a slap in the face for Tehran.

The Iraq fight comes as both sides are locked in talks to limit Irans nuclear program; top diplomats fromboth sidesare now meeting in Geneva in a bid to bridge gaps to meet a November deadline for a final deal.Added to the long list of possible spoilers: theWashington PostsTehran correspondent Jason Rezaian, a dual US-Iranian citizen, and his Iranian journalist wife Yeganeh Salehi, have beenheld in detention in Iran for more than 45 days without charge.

And while both sides may be finding common cause in crushing IS, both have waged a covert war that has seen the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists, the Stuxnet computer virus, and unexplained explosions and sabotage. Washington calls Iran the leading state sponsor of terrorism, and in recent years a sting operation found an Iranian used-car salesman in Texas guilty of plotting to assassinate the Saudi Arabia ambassador in a Washington, DC restaurant.

Iranian officials in Tehranthis week described attempts to recruit Iranian scientists abroad, and showed imported equipment for nuclear work that had been tampered with and sabotaged. We aim to raise awareness about the enemy, who is more hostile to us every day, Asghar Zarean, the head of security for Irans nuclear program, told the Associated Press.

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Iran's supreme leader said to approve military cooperation with US