TEHRAN, 26 October 2003 — Iran has finally revealed to the UN Security Council the names of scores of suspected Al-Qaeda members in its custody, state media here said yesterday.
A report to the council identified 78 suspected members of the militant network who Iran says have already been extradited to their countries of origin, the official IRNA news agency said.
The Iranian mission in New York also provided the names of 147 suspected members of Al-Qaeda — or of its former Afghan hosts, the Taleban militia — who remain in custody here pending trial, extradition or deportation, the news agency said. IRNA’s dispatch did not reveal the names of the detainees or any further details about them.
Iran has previously acknowledged holding some senior members of Al-Qaeda but despite US strong pressure, had not identified them, other than saying they are “important and less important members” of the terror network.
Between October 2002 and April 2003, more than 2,300 people who illegally entered Iran were handed over to border guards and the United Nations also informed of their names, IRNA said.
About 400 people linked to Al-Qaeda were refused entry to the Islamic republic during the war in Iraq, IRNA added.
Previously, Iran said it arrested and deported some 500 people belonging to or linked to Al-Qaeda since late 2001.
Tehran has come under fire from Washington for not doing more against Al-Qaeda and for refusing to extradite the suspects to the United States, with which it has no extradition treaty.
The Washington Post reported Oct. 14 that the eldest son of Osama Bin Laden, Saad, had risen to the top ranks of Al-Qaeda and is helping run the terror network from inside Iran.
The paper, which quoted US, European and Arab officials, said Saad was being protected by an elite unit linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the Islamic republic’s ideological army.
Iran dismissed the allegation as an “absolute lie” and challenged foreign intelligence services to prove it.
Diplomats and Arab press reports have said other senior Al-Qaeda suspects held in Iran include the movement’s spokesman, Sulaiman Abu Gaith, a former Kuwaiti, and its No. 2 and No. 3 — Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Saif Al-Adel — both of them formerly Egyptian.
Iran has never sanctioned any Al-Qaeda activity on its soil, and opposed the Taleban even when other states recognized its government in Kabul, IRNA said, alluding to the United States which initially supported the fundamentalist ruling party.
