Iran TerrorismIran no longer holding Al-Qaeda detainees: top official

Iran no longer holding Al-Qaeda detainees: top official

-

AFP: Iran has extradited all foreign members of the Al-Qaeda network arrested inside its borders and is not holding any of the group’s leaders, the Islamic republic’s top national security official told AFP. TEHRAN, Dec 4 (AFP) – Iran has extradited all foreign members of the Al-Qaeda network arrested inside its borders and is not holding any of the group’s leaders, the Islamic republic’s top national security official told AFP.

The comments from Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, come after several years of speculation over which Al-Qaeda members Iran’s regime has in its jails.

The United States has also accused Tehran of harbouring members of the group.

“There are no Al-Qaeda leaders inside Iran. We do have a long border with Afghanistan, and when the Americans bombed the country, some people crossed this area, but we extradited them or sent them back,” Larijani said in an interview.

“There are rules. Those who were Iranians were tried in Iran. If they were foreign, we prevented them from entering Iran or we expelled them,” Larijani said.

In the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and the subsequent toppling of the Taliban regime, Iranian officials announced the arrests of a number of fugitive Al-Qaeda members.

In 2003 and most recently in August 2004, Iranian officials said senior members of Osama bin Laden’s network were also being held — but cited national security as the reason for not divulging names.

Diplomats, intelligence sources and Arab press reports have pointed to the possible presence in Iran of the movement’s spokesman, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, and its number three, Saif al-Adel, as well as Bin Laden’s son and Al-Qaeda heir, Saad.

The three were born in Kuwait, Egypt and Saudi Arabia respectively. But reported extradition talks between Iran and each of those three countries were shrouded in secrecy.

Larijani gave no further details, going on to assert only that Iran believed in “peaceful coexistence with other religions, like Christians or Jews, and does not approve of crashing airplanes into buildings.”

Tehran condemned the 2001 attacks and was long opposed to the Taliban militia, Afghanistan’s former rulers, who gave shelter to Al-Qaeda before their ouster in a US-led war the same year.

Latest news

 Statistics show that New Year accidents’ deaths in Iran reached 585

Ahmad Shirani, the head of the Information and Traffic Control Center of the Iranian regime’s police, announced that the...

Land Subsidence in Critical Conditions in Isfahan

Mehdi Toghyani, a member of the Iranian regime’s Majlis (parliament), pointed to the occurrence of land subsidence in various...

Iran’s Actual Inflation Rate Higher Than Official Stats

The state-run Donya-e-eqtesad newspaper, in a report analyzing the "general sentiment" regarding inflation in 2023, has stated that households...

Iranian Workers’ Monthly $136 Wages Can’t Cover $500 Expenses

The lives of a significant portion of the Iranian population are marked by uncertainty, largely because the Iranian economy...

Iranian Nurses Earn Twice Their Wages in Ride-Hailing Services

Reza Aryanpour, a member of the regime’s Majlis (parliament) Health and Treatment Commission, highlighted the growing trend of nurses...

Iran: Unprecedented Record of 152 Million Liters of Gasoline Consumption Per Day

On March 19, Iran set a new historical record in gasoline consumption with 152 million liters consumed in one...

Must read

Iran shuts down coffee shops in morality crackdown

Reuters: Iranian police shut down dozens of restaurants and...

Leaders warn Iran over nuclear site

New York Times: President Obama and leaders of Britain...

You might also likeRELATED
Recommended to you