28 Mar 2024
Tuesday 23 April 2013 - 18:50
Story Code : 25704

Canada alleges Al Qaeda plot from Iran, but Tehran's involvement unlikely

Shiite Iran and Sunni Al Qaeda have long had a hostile relationship. While state involvement appears unlikely, Tehran has less control over the country's far east.


CouldIranreally have been linked to anAl Qaedaplot inCanadato derail a passengertrain bound for theUS?


When Canadian officials made that charge yesterday,it surprised Iran specialists because the Shiite Islamic Republic and hardline Sunni Al Qaeda have been largely hostile to each other for the last two decades.

The history of antagonism between the Iranian government and Al Qaeda makes any state involvement unlikely. However, operatives may be exploiting loose government control in remote border areas.

Iran today denied that it had any connection to the major terrorist attack that Canadian officials say they thwarted.According to officials,Al Qaeda elements in Iran gave direction and guidance to Chiheb Esseghaier ofMontreal, and Raed Jaser ofToronto,to mount an attack on a Toronto-New York train line. The suspects had been under surveillance for a year before their arrests.

No shred of evidence regarding those whove been arrested and stand accused has been provided, Irans foreign ministry spokesmanRamin Mehmanparastsaid today, according to Iranian media.

We oppose any kind of violent act that endangers lives, said Mr. Mehmanparast. In recent years, Canadas radical government has put in practice a project to harass Iran and it is clear that it has pursued these hostile actions.

TheRoyal Canadian Mounted Policesaid it had no evidence of Iranian state sponsorship in the plot, but also did not specify how Al Qaeda elements in Iran may have been able to shape events from two continents away, and without Iranian knowledge.

Reutersreported thata US government source suggestedthat Iran was home to a little-known network of Al Qaeda fixers and 'facilitators' based in the Iranian city ofZahedan, located near Irans remote eastern border withAfghanistanandPakistan, an area known for itslawlessness.

Those fixers serve as go-betweens, travel agents and financial intermediaries for Al Qaeda operatives and cells operating in Pakistan and moving throughout the area, and"do not operate under the protection of the Iranian government, which periodically launches crackdowns on al Qaeda elements,"Reuters reports.

Ties 'fueled by mutual distrust'

Iran detained hundreds of Al Qaeda fighters who fled from Afghanistan to Iran in late 2001, after US air strikes and theNorthern Alliancemilitia which shared close ties with both Iran and later the US forced the collapse of theTalibanregime, which hosted Al Qaeda.

IransRevolutionary Guardhad been helpful to theUS militaryand theCIAin that fight, quietly providing extensive intelligence and political assistance to improve targeting of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Iran repatriated many of the Arab Al Qaeda fighters who fled Afghanistan to their home countries, but kept several dozen of the most high-ranking, including children and relatives ofOsama bin Laden, and Al Qaedas former No. 3, the head of security and intelligenceSaif al-Adel. Iran has always claimed that they were under house arrest or otherwise prevented from keeping operational contact with Al Qaeda foot soldiers.

A report by the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Pointon some of the documents found in Osama bin Laden'sAbbottabad, Pakistan, compound in May 2011 appears to confirm Irans frequently hostile relationship with Al Qaeda.

The documents make it clear that Al Qaeda's ties to Iran were the unpleasant byproduct of necessity, fueled by mutual distrust and antagonism, states the report.

Relations between Al Qaeda and Iran appear to have been highly antagonistic, and the documents provide evidence for the first time of al Qaedas covert campaign against Iran, the CTC reports. Al Qaeda did not appear to have looked to Iran from the perspective that the enemy of my (American) enemy is my friend, but the group might have hoped that the enemy of my (American) enemy would leave me alone.'

In the letters, top Al Qaeda leaders complain that the Iranian criminals did not send us any letter, nor did they send us a message through any of the brothers [they released]! The CTC report notes that Bin Laden was equally distrustful of the Iranian regime, and that the release of his family was fraught with hurdles.

Missed opportunity

An analysis of the CTC report by Barbara Slavin of Al-Monitornoted that the Abbottabad documents underline the view that theGeorge W. Bush administrationmissed what could have been a major opportunity to work with Iran against the Sunni militant group responsible for the 9-11 attacks.

Similarly, notes Ms. Slavin, the report suggests theObama administrationmay have overstated the case when theUS Treasury Departmentdesignated Iran [in July 2011] for having a secret deal with al-Qaeda allowing it to funnel funds and operatives through its territory.

Iran tried to use those Al Qaeda operatives as bargaining chips, offering to trade them with the US in 2003 for leaders of the Iranian armed opposition Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), whose base atCamp AshrafinIraqcame under American control after the US military toppledSaddam Hussein.

The US refused the offer, with some Pentagon and Bush administration officials arguing that the MEK whichwas listed as a terrorist organizationby theUS State Departmentfrom 1997 until lastSeptembermight prove a useful tool in any future US fight against Iran.

Instead, Iran has used them as bargaining chips with Al Qaeda itself. The CTC report notes correspondence boasting that Al Qaeda in 2008 kidnapped an Iranian diplomat inPeshawar, Pakistan, and thethreatswe made to scare the Iranians into releasing bin Laden relatives and key operatives.

The fresh Canadian claims about the Al Qaeda-Iran connection come 1.5 months after bin Laden son-in-lawSulaiman Abu Ghaithwas detained in the Turkish capitalAnkara, in a joint Turkey-CIA operation.Mr. Abu Ghaith had been held for years in Iran, and his arrest (eventually byJordan) not long after a US federal court happened to issue an arrest warrant indicated to some that he may have been surreptitiously released by Iran.

He is now in American custody.But thechain of eventshas raised speculation of a goodwill gesture by Iranas nuclear negotiations with world powers continue, notes Inter Press Service,or as part of a more complex Turkey-mediated prisoner swap deal with Syrian rebels.

By The Christian Science Monitor

 

The Iran Project is not responsible for the content of quoted articles.


https://theiranproject.com/vdcjxae8.uqeiyz29fu.html
Your Name
Your Email Address