Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

On Sunday, militants overran a second frontier post on the Syrian border as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) pursues the goal of its own caliphate straddling both countries.

"We are strongly opposed to U.S. and other intervention in Iraq," IRNA news agency quoted Khamenei as saying. "We don’t approve of it as we believe the Iraqi government, nation and religious authorities are capable of ending the sedition."

Some Iraqi observers interpreted his remarks as a warning not to try to handpick any successor to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, amid speculation he may be pushed to quit over a crisis for which many in the West hold him responsible after eight years of Shi'ite-led government has alienated minority Sunnis.

Speaking in Cairo, Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States wanted the Iraqi people to find a leadership that would represent all the country's communities - though he echoed Obama in saying it would not pick or choose those leaders.

"The United States would like the Iraqi people to find leadership that is prepared to represent all of the people of Iraq, that is prepared to be inclusive and share power," he said.

The Iranian and the U.S. governments had seemed open to collaboration against al Qaeda offshoot the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which is fighting both the U.S.-backed, Shi'ite-led government of Iraq and the Iranian-backed president of Syria, whom Washington wants to see overthrown.