TEHRAN, 29 August 2003 — Iran sees no reason to help the United States in its war against Al-Qaeda so long as Washington fails to fully clamp down on the armed Iranian opposition, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told CNN yesterday. “Cooperation has to be reciprocal. There’s no reason why we should cooperate with the Americans while the Americans do not cooperate with us,” Kharrazi said, in reference to the continued presence of members of the People’s Mujahedeen in US-controlled Iraq.
“There must be some reason to have such cooperation which is very sensitive with Americans. The US have not shown their cooperation toward those terrorists who have been making attacks against Iran.”
Earlier this month Washington tightened up a ban on the group’s operations in the United States, closing down its offices, but Iran insisted that the move did not go far enough and demanded US action against the Mujahedeen in Iraq as well.
Iran has acknowledged holding a raft of suspected Al-Qaeda militants, including top leaders, but has so far ruled out giving Washington access to them.
With those states that have been “cooperative with us we have shown cooperation inside and outside of the region and we’ll continue to do that — if there’s any information that may be useful for them certainly we will give them,” Kharrazi said.
He refused to identify any of the militants held by Iran but reiterated that since late 2001 Iran had extradited a number of Al-Qaeda members and was still interrogating others.
“Of course they have to go through legal processes and if they have committed crimes in Iran certainly they will be prosecuted,” he said.
Diplomats and Arab press reports have said the Al-Qaeda members held in Iran include Osama Bin Laden’s son Saad the movement’s spokesman, Sulaiman Abu Gaith, a former Kuwaiti; and its number two and number three — Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Saif Al-Adel — both of them formerly Egyptian.
