Last month, Iran announced that it was holding a number of Al-Qaeda members who presumably had fled westward at the time US-led forces toppled the Taleban regime in neighboring Afghanistan. Now, Tehran has admitted holding senior members of Al-Qaeda.
Coming just days after US President Bush accused Iran, as well as Syria, of supporting terrorism, this has to be seen as Tehran’s response — although Kuwait’s disclosure last week that it had turned down an Iranian offer to repatriate Al-Qaeda’s chief spokesman, Kuwaiti-born Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, takes any surprise out of the announcement. This latest revelation is an implicit statement by Tehran that, far from supporting terrorism, it too is involved in the war against it.
This may temporarily quell Washington’s accusations, but it is unlikely to put an end to them. That is because last week’s tongue-lashing by Bush was more about Iran’s support for Palestinian militants and for Hezbollah in Lebanon. It was not an accusation of links with Al-Qaeda, although on several occasions Washington has claimed members of the network are in Iran. Their intelligence as far as that goes has been proved correct, although in fact Iran’s policy on captured Al-Qaeda members has been consistent; it prefers to send them home, if they come from a Muslim country, leaving it to the authorities there to pursue matters.
The fact that Iran should feel the need to refute Washington’s allegations in this particular way is interesting, especially given that on Tuesday Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi was on the offensive against the US, accusing it in turn of supporting terrorism for allowing armed Iranian rebels to operate from inside Iraq. This latest statement seems designed to placate the US.
These different responses can be attributed to mixed views among Iranians over the US. More conservative forces in the country still see the US as the Great Satan. Among a section of the reformers, there is greater sympathy for the US — which in turn is why Washington supports them. The president and his supporters are somewhere in the middle, hoping for better relations with the US.
While the US remains a sensitive issue within Iran, there can be no lessening of tension between the two countries. Unfortunately, there is nothing on the horizon to indicate that the internal power struggle is near a resolution or that Washington is ready to tone down its rhetoric. So all the signs are that Al-Qaeda or not, US-Iran relationship is going to remain tense, with each accusing the other of almost everything evil. That does not promise anything good for Iran, the region or even the US.
