What took them so long to make this acknowledgment? I don't get what was in their best interest in denying it.
Iran Says Has Some Senior Al Qaeda in Custody
Wed July 23, 2003 03:08 PM ET
TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) - Iran publicly acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that it was holding some senior figures from Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
"Since the collapse of the Taliban regime we have arrested a large number of them (al Qaeda members)," Iran's Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi told reporters after a weekly cabinet meeting.
"Many of them have been expelled and a large number of them are in our custody -- a mixture of big and small members."
He declined to identify any of the al Qaeda members currently held in Iran. "But I said big and small members," he reiterated.
It was the first public admission by a top government official that Iran is holding some key members of al Qaeda, the group Washington holds responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on U.S. cities.
Previously, Iran has said it was still trying to identify which al Qaeda members it had captured.
The admission came two days after President Bush increased pressure on Iran by accusing it of harboring and assisting terrorists.
In strongly worded comments at the White House he said: "This behavior is completely unacceptable and states that support terror will be held accountable."
Iran has flatly denied it harbored al Qaeda members.
"As soon as we get any information about those linked to al Qaeda or its members, we immediately start our intelligence activities and arrest them," Yunesi said.
"We are determined to confront them and we have done that. And this confrontation is not to make anyone in particular happy," he said.
Kuwait's Interior Minister Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah earlier this month said Kuwait had turned down an offer from Tehran to hand over al Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith.
Media reports and intelligence sources have also said Iran is believed to be holding al Qaeda's number two, Ayman al-Zawahri, and its security chief, Saif al-Adel.
Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari said Wednesday some al Qaeda members would be tried in Iran, some extradited to their countries of origin and others deported back to the country they entered Iran from.
"We are ready to hand over those al Qaeda members with whose countries we have friendly ties," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
Iran Says Has Some Senior Al Qaeda in Custody
Wed July 23, 2003 03:08 PM ET
TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) - Iran publicly acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that it was holding some senior figures from Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
"Since the collapse of the Taliban regime we have arrested a large number of them (al Qaeda members)," Iran's Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi told reporters after a weekly cabinet meeting.
"Many of them have been expelled and a large number of them are in our custody -- a mixture of big and small members."
He declined to identify any of the al Qaeda members currently held in Iran. "But I said big and small members," he reiterated.
It was the first public admission by a top government official that Iran is holding some key members of al Qaeda, the group Washington holds responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on U.S. cities.
Previously, Iran has said it was still trying to identify which al Qaeda members it had captured.
The admission came two days after President Bush increased pressure on Iran by accusing it of harboring and assisting terrorists.
In strongly worded comments at the White House he said: "This behavior is completely unacceptable and states that support terror will be held accountable."
Iran has flatly denied it harbored al Qaeda members.
"As soon as we get any information about those linked to al Qaeda or its members, we immediately start our intelligence activities and arrest them," Yunesi said.
"We are determined to confront them and we have done that. And this confrontation is not to make anyone in particular happy," he said.
Kuwait's Interior Minister Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah earlier this month said Kuwait had turned down an offer from Tehran to hand over al Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith.
Media reports and intelligence sources have also said Iran is believed to be holding al Qaeda's number two, Ayman al-Zawahri, and its security chief, Saif al-Adel.
Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari said Wednesday some al Qaeda members would be tried in Iran, some extradited to their countries of origin and others deported back to the country they entered Iran from.
"We are ready to hand over those al Qaeda members with whose countries we have friendly ties," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
Round em and ship em to X-ray.
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