TEHRAN, 14 August 2003 — President Muhammad Khatami rejected yesterday allowing US investigators to come to Iran to question suspected members of Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network detained here. The president also denied Iranian press speculation that Tehran secretly asked Washington in late July to resume informal talks.
Asked whether US investigators would be allowed contact with terror suspects as a means of ending an impasse over Al-Qaeda members, Khatami’s response was “no”.
“Al-Qaeda members in our custody will be questioned. If they should be tried (in Iran) they will be. If they should be deported, they will be,” he said after a Cabinet meeting.
“We will arrest all members of Al-Qaeda we find. Their animosity toward us is nothing compared with their animosity toward the United States,” he added. He said reports of a request to reopen dialogue with Washington were “totally false”.
“There has been no discussion,” the president added.
The Islamic republic has declined to reveal the identities of the terror suspects it is holding, other than saying they are “important and less important members” of Al-Qaeda.
US officials and Arab press reports say Kuwaiti-born Al-Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Abu Gaith, one of Osama Bin Laden’s sons, Saad, and Jordanian Abu Masab Al-Zarwaqi, a close aide to Bin Laden, are among those under arrest in Iran.
The daily Entekhab quoted a “well-informed source” as saying that a senior Iranian diplomat had dispatched an intermediary to tell US Secretary of State Colin Powell that Tehran was ready to restart talks.
