TEHRAN - Captured Iranian Sunni militant Abdolmalek Rigi said in a “confession' aired on state television Friday that the United States offered to provide him with military aid to battle the Islamic regime. Rigi's arrest, which Iran touted as a blow to the United States and Britain, came as Tehran faces pressure by world powers and the threat of tougher sanctions over its controversial nuclear programme.“They (Americans) said they would cooperate with us and will give me military equipment,' Rigi said in a pre-recorded statement broadcast on Iran's state-run English-language Press TV.
“They also promised to give us a base along the border with Afghanistan near Iran,' said the ringleader, stubble-faced, wearing blue prison pyjamas and speaking in Farsi.
Not that any of this will help Rigi save his life ...
Rigi was seized on Tuesday after Iranian warplanes reportedly forced a flight from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan to land in Iran.
Bad idea to be in or around Dubai these days ...
It was not clear under what conditions the confessions were extracted from Rigi, whose group the Jundallah has waged a deadly insurgency in southeastern Iran killing military officials as well as civilians.
Clear to me ...
Rigi said in his taped statement that he was on his way to meet a “high-ranking American person' in Kyrgyzstan. He added that Americans met him in Pakistan around March 2009 and had also sought a meeting “after the last major operation we took part in.'
He was apparently referring to the October 2009 suicide bombing in the provincial town of Pisheen that killed 42 people, including seven Revolutionary Guards commanders and several tribal leaders, which was claimed by Jundallah.
“The Americans said Iran was going its own way and they said our problem at present is Iran ... not Al-Qaeda nor the Taliban,' Rigi said.
Iran has repeatedly accused archfoe the United States of backing the group.
Washington dismissed as “totally bogus' claims on Tuesday by Iranian Intelligence minister Heydar Moslehi that Rigi had been issued an Afghan passport by the “Americans' and had met a NATO military chief in Afghanistan.
Jundallah says it is fighting Tehran's Shiite rule to secure rights for Sunni Baluchis who form a significant population in Sistan-Baluchestan — the restive province on a major narcotics-smuggling route bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Soon after the October bombing, Revolutionary Guards chief Mohammad Ali Jafari demanded that Islamabad hand over Rigi because Tehran had “proof' he was backed by Pakistan's intelligence agency.
Pakistan's ambassador to Tehran, Mohammad Abbasi, told reporters earlier this week that Islamabad had helped to capture Rigi and that he was detained outside Pakistan. He gave no further details.
In Abu Dhabi, meanwhile, the foreign ministry said on Friday that Rigi had been arrested on a flight from Dubai after a short stopover, denying reports that he stayed in Dubai. Rigi, “who came from Kabul and carried on to Kyrgyzstan, stopped over for two hours at Dubai airport and did not use his visa to enter in Dubai,' it said in a statement.