PING!
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Posted on 08/18/2003 10:05:30 AM PDT by TastyManatees
Iran claims it has foiled al-Qaeda strike plans
PARISA HAFEZI
IRAN has foiled a number of attacks which al-Qaeda had been planning to carry out on its soil, a senior government official has claimed.
"Their [al-Qaeda’s] plans for a wide range of terrorist acts inside Iran were neutralised by our intelligence organisations," the Iranian news agency, IRNA, quoted Hassan Rohani, the secretary general of the Supreme National Security Council, as saying. Mr Rohani gave no details of the planned attacks or whether any al-Qaeda members linked to them were arrested.
Although a staunch political enemy of Washington, Iran condemned the 11 September, 2001, attacks on the United States which were blamed on al-Qaeda and was fiercely opposed to the rule of al-Qaeda’s former sponsors, the Taleban, in neighbouring Afghanistan.
But the Islamic republic has acknowledged that its extensive eastern border with Afghanistan is hard to police and some fleeing al-Qaeda members may have been able to slip into the country. Iran says it has arrested a number of al-Qaeda members in recent months, including some senior figures in Osama bin Laden’s organisation.
But it has declined to name who it has caught and says it will not hand them over to US officials for questioning.
Intelligence sources and media reports suggest Iran may be holding Saad bin Laden, a son of the al-Qaeda leader, as well as al-Qaeda’s security chief, Egyptian Saif al Adel, and its Kuwaiti-born spokesman, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, among others.
Washington has in the past accused Iran of sheltering al-Qaeda and said members of bin Laden’s network in Iran may have planned the 12 May bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which killed 35 people.
Tehran accuses Washington of double standards on terrorism and called on it to deal with the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) - an Iranian opposition group based in Iraq which has long been termed "terrorist" by the US State Department.
The State Department on Friday announced the Washington offices of two organisations linked to the MEK - the National Council of Resistance of Iran and the People’s Mujahideen of Iran - had been closed down.
Iran’s foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi, welcomed the US move against MEK as a "positive step". But he also called on Washington to take action against MEK fighters in Iraq.
"The heads of this terrorist grouplet are in Iraq, which is under US control, and America should act upon its responsibilities to confront them," he was quoted as saying by the Mardomsalari newspaper.
Security analysts have speculated that Iran may be willing to swap some of its al-Qaeda detainees for MEK leaders. Iran has firmly denied offering Washington such a swap.
Iran says in the past year it has deported 500 al-Qaeda suspects who fled across its borders from Afghanistan and Pakistan. "We are serious in our fight against terrorists," Mr Rohani said. "The arrest, expulsion and handing over of many al-Qaeda members is proof of that."
Once they have completed their weapons development you can bet their attitude will change and they can start the real jihad they have been waiting for.
Join Us At The Iranian Alert Daily Thread.
It's like the old joke:
1st person: "I saved so-and-so from [insert crime here] on the street today."
2nd person: "Oh really! How'd you do that?"
1st person: "I stayed home."
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