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What was Al Qaeda's 'number two' doing in Iran?

2020-11-16T19:15:37.726Z


Despite the efforts of some sectors of the US to link the Sunni extremist group and the Shiite regime, there is no evidence of a strategic relationship between the two


The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran, Saied Khatibzadeh, during an appearance in which he denied the reports about the murder of Abu Muhammad al-Masri, last Saturday in Tehran. FOREIGN MINISTRY OFFICE HANDOUT / EFE

The recent revelation of the assassination in Iran

of Al Qaeda

number two

, Abu Muhammad al Masri, brings back to light the debate over the alleged cooperation between the Islamic Republic and the terrorist group.

In the United States, some sectors have been denouncing their ties for years, without offering conclusive evidence.

Iranian spokesmen's rejection of these accusations is supported by their incompatible ideology: Al Qaeda's uncompromising interpretation of Sunni Islam considers the Shiites, who support the Iranian regime, heretics.

The reality is somewhat more convoluted.

After the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, some members of Al Qaeda and their families crossed the Iranian border fleeing the bombings.

Tehran, uncomfortable with the situation, tried to send them to their home countries.

He also provided the UN with a list of 225 suspects he had detained, but his offer to cooperate with Washington ceased after President George W. Bush included Iran in his "axis of evil."

In the end, although he never officially admitted it, he kept an unknown number of them under house arrest.

Given the natural enmity between the Shiite Islamist regime and Sunni extremists, the decision appeared to seek to deter the group from an eventual attack on their territory.

Over time, they have also served as a bargaining chip.

Such would have been the case with

Al Qaeda

number two

who, according to leaks to the US press, Israeli agents assassinated in Tehran on August 7.

Abu Mohammed al Masri, as the Egyptian Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah was known, was one of five members of the group that Iran reportedly released in 2015 in exchange for an Iranian diplomat kidnapped in Yemen.

Al Masri reportedly refused to be repatriated to Egypt and came under the surveillance of the Iranian secret services.

His daughter Miriam, the widow of Hamza, son of Osama Bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda who was liquidated by the United States in 2011, was also killed by him.

Rumors about the presence of Bin Laden's relatives in Tehran were confirmed by the fact that one of the terrorist's daughters escaped from the house where they were being held in late 2009. Imad arrived in Iran eight years earlier in a caravan that left Kandahar before the imminent retaliation of the United States for the attacks of 9/11.

The CIA maintained that Iran had given refuge to a dozen members of Al Qaeda, including several scions of the founder of the group, something that the Iranian authorities always denied.

Some analysts even went further and alleged that as early as the 1990s the Islamic Republic had agreed to train Bin Laden's men in the use of explosives.

This is reflected in the official report on the 9/11 attacks, where it is found that at least eight of the terrorists who participated in the attacks passed through Iran on their way to or from Afghanistan.

However, the investigation found no evidence that the Iranian authorities were aware of his intentions.

Since then, Washington has repeatedly denounced the existence of networks in Iran that facilitated the transit of Al Qaeda operatives and relatives to and from Afghanistan and Pakistan, especially during the US intervention in Iraq (2003-2011).

What it has failed to demonstrate is that this was the result of a formal agreement and not simply that Iranian officials turned a blind eye.

Diplomatic sources consulted during these years have always denied that there is "active cooperation", although they admitted that by sharing some objectives they could have collaborated occasionally.

With the passage of time, most of the members of Al Qaeda and their families who took refuge in Iran, have been released, although there are no details about it.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2020-11-16

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