Posted on 03/06/2004 4:48:17 PM PST by Pokey78
A dissident Libyan group has been expelled from Iran after last week's revelation in the Telegraph that it was being trained by the Revolutionary Guards to carry out attacks against Col Muammar Gaddafi's regime.
The Iranians harboured the Libyans as a bargaining chip to prevent Tripoli revealing details about Iran's clandestine attempts to build an atom bomb. However, after last week's report that the Libyans were receiving training in terrorist techniques at a secret Revolutionary Guards base in southern Iran, the group was asked to leave the country.
A spokesman for the Libyan Islamic Combat Group's "political bureau" told the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Hayat that it had been "coerced" into leaving Iran. He did not say where the dissidents would be based in future, but said that several commanders had been arrested since leaving Iran.
Although the Iranians have always denied harbouring al-Qaeda terrorists, the spokesman confirmed that several of the group's commanders had fled to Iran after the war in Afghanistan in 2001.
Western intelligence officials had learnt of the group's presence in Iran during the interrogation of al-Qaeda suspects captured after the collapse of the Taliban in Afghanistan. According to the suspects, the Libyans were told that they would be prevented from carrying out terror attacks against Col Gaddafi's regime so long as Tripoli gave nothing away about the extent of its involvement with Teheran in developing nuclear weapons.
Teheran's nuclear programme will come under scrutiny this week when officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna meet to discuss unresolved issues relating to Iran, including its attempts to develop weapons-grade uranium.
Iran's growing concern at the possibility that the Libyans might provide IAEA inspectors with details of its nuclear project resulted in Massoud Jazairi, the Revolutionary Guards' official spokesman, making a rare public statement last week in which he stressed Iran's high regard for Col Gaddafi's regime.
"While there are occasionally differences between the two countries regarding various issues, we would not let them harm our fraternal and friendly relations," he said.
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