Iran, under pressure from Washington over its role in the US-led war on
terrorism, said yesterday it had arrested members of Osama bin Laden's
al-Qaeda group.
Leading US lawmakers had predicted positive developments regarding
al-Qaeda in coming days from Iran.
US officials say they have intelligence suggesting senior al-Qaeda
members hiding in Iran had prior knowledge of the May 12 suicide bombings
in Saudi Arabia in which 34 people, including eight Americans, were
killed.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi, quoted by state
radio yesterday, said some al-Qaeda members had been arrested in the
Islamic Republic "but the detainees are not senior al-Qaeda members".
"Iran is serious about confronting al-Qaeda," he said, calling on
Washington to "follow logic and wisdom in international relations and
avoid making interfering remarks", the radio reported.
Iran says it has, in the past year, arrested and deported about 500
al-Qaeda members who slipped over its borders from Afghanistan, Pakistan
and Iraq. Iran's ambassador to the UN, Javad Zarif, said on Sunday that
Iran was trying to identify a group of al-Qaeda suspects in custody and
was willing to hand them over to "friendly governments", such as Saudi
Arabia.
US officials have accused Iran of pursuing a secret nuclear weapons
program, meddling in postwar Iraq and harbouring al-Qaeda.
Iran denies the charges and insists its has long been ideologically
opposed to bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
The Washington Post reported on Sunday that the White House was
due to consider a Pentagon-backed proposal to destabilise Iran's clerical
Government through a popular uprising.
- Reuters
