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Iran May be Refuge for Senior Al-Qaeda Operatives
Investigations by several European countries have found that Iran has provided refuge for several senior al-Qaeda operatives, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday. While Iran has claimed to have cracked down on terrorism, the country is believed to have been used as a safe haven in recent years for operatives such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is believed to be the head of the insurgency movement in Iraq and of a broader terrorist group; and Saif Adel, who is suspected of being al-Qaeda’s top military official, according to the Times. “The Iranians play a double game,” a top French law enforcement official said. “Everything they can do to trouble the Americans, without going too far, they do it. They have arrested important al-Qaeda people, but they have permitted other important al-Qaeda people to operate. It is a classic Iranian style of ambiguity, deception, manipulation,” the official said. The nature of Iran’s connection to al-Qaeda is unclear due to the Islamic republic’s complex politics and secrecy, according to the Times. Iranian support of al-Qaeda, if it exists, remains limited, according to investigators. Some experts have said that al-Qaeda may be receiving support more from Iran’s hard-line Revolutionary Guard than from the government itself, according to the Times. “When the Iranian government says it is not dealing with al-Qaeda, it is telling the truth,” said Mustafa Alani of the Royal United Services Institute, a think tank affiliated with the British Defense Ministry. “It’s not the government — it’s the Revolutionary Guard,” Alani said (Sebastian Rotella, Los Angeles Times, Aug. 1).
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