Iran: Iran's intelligence minister said yesterday Tehran was holding many al-Qaeda members, including some senior figures from Osama bin Laden's network.
"Since the collapse of the Taliban regime we have arrested a large number of them [al-Qaeda members\]," Mr Ali Yunesi told reporters after a weekly cabinet meeting.
"Many of them have been expelled and a large number of them are in our custody - a mixture of big and small members." He declined to identify any of the al-Qaeda members currently in custody in Iran. "But I said big and small members," he reiterated.
It was the first public admission by a top government official that Iran is holding some key members of al-Qaeda, the group Washington holds responsible for the September 11th, 2001, hijacked aircraft attacks on US cities.
Previously Iran has said it was still trying to identify which al-Qaeda members it had captured.
But the US reacted skeptically with the White House spokesman, Mr Scott McClellan, saying he was unable to confirm the claims coming from Tehran.
Mr McClellan said Washington was "not exactly sure" what the Iranians meant by the term "custody," but that Tehran's statement appeared to confirm "what we believe to be a significant al Qaeda presence in Iran". He added: "We have expressed concerns about their support and harboring of terrorists . . . I think the Iranians know who they are and what they need to do."
Media reports and intelligence sources have also said Iran is believed to be holding al-Qaeda's number two, Ayman al-Zawahri, and its security chief Saif al-Adel.
Washington has accused Iran in the past of harbouring al-Qaeda members, something which Iran flatly denies. Mr Yunesi said: "As soon as we get any information about those linked to al-Qaeda or its members, we immediately start our intelligence activities and arrest them.
"We are determined to confront them and we have done that. And this confrontation is not to make anyone in particular happy. We are ready to hand over those al-Qaeda members with whose countries we have friendly ties."- (Reuters)