| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran continues to deny al-Qaeda presence |
| 2005-12-06 |
| The Iranian government has denied the presence of al-Qaeda in the country. "No al-Qaeda leader can currently be found in the Islamic Republic," Ali Larijani, the secretary of the High Council of National Security of Iran and the man behind the foreign policy of the new Iranian government, has said. "All the members and leaders of al-Qaeda who took refuge in our country, following the American bombardment of Afghanistan, have been indentified and returned to their countries of origin," said Larijani, who is also Iran's chief nuclear negotiator. Arab and Western sources, contrary to what Ali Larijani has stated, are convinced that many of the leaders of the terrorist organisation are still present as refugees in Iran, where they continue to reside thanks to the protection of Islamic militia and certain extremists groups close to the new Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who came to power after the June presidential elections. The same sources speak of the presence in Iran of the eldest son of the Osama bin Laden, Saad, as well as al-Qaeda's spokesperson, Suleyman Abu Gaith, and the Egyptian, Saif al Adel, one of the United States' most wanted terrorists who is believed to be a high-ranking member of al-Qaeda. Contrary to what Ali Larijani has stated, in August of 2004, the Iranian minister of intelligence of the previous government of Mohammad Khatami had admitted to the presence in Iran of many al-Qaeda leaders whose arrests and trial were imminent. However the then minister of intelligence refused to provide a list of the al-Qaeda members in Iran. According to a 2 December report by the Israeli Debka Net Weekly website, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is alive and and running new terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 "...Khatami had admitted to the presence..." Harboring or Holding? If conditions were right, Saif al-Adel might net a few MEK. |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2005-12-06 11:48 |