WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday, without providing hard evidence, that Al-Qaeda had established a new home base in Iran and the United States had fewer options in dealing with the group now it was “burrowed inside” that country.
With just eight days left in office for President Donald Trump, Pompeo alleged that Iran has given safe haven to Al-Qaeda leaders and support for the group, despite some skepticism within the intelligence community and Congress.
The New York Times reported in November that Al-Qaeda’s Abu Muhammad Al-Masri, accused of helping to mastermind the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa, was gunned down by Israeli operatives in Iran. Iran denied the report, saying there were no Al-Qaeda “terrorists” on its soil.
Pompeo told a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington that he was announcing publicly for the first time that Al-Masri died on Aug. 7 last year.
Pompeo said his presence in Iran was no surprise, and added: “Al-Masri’s presence inside Iran points to the reason that we’re here today ... Al-Qaeda has a new home base: it is the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
On Twitter, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif dismissed Pompeo’s accusations as “warmongering lies.”
Iran has been a target throughout the Trump administration and Pompeo has sought to further ratchet up pressure on Iran in recent weeks with more sanctions and heated rhetoric.
Advisers to President-elect Joe Biden believe the Trump administration is trying to make it harder for him to re-engage with Iran and seek to rejoin an international deal on Iran’s nuclear program once he takes office on Jan. 20.
Pompeo added that he was imposing sanctions on Iran-based Al-Qaeda leaders and three leaders of Al-Qaeda Kurdish battalions.
He also announced a reward of up to $7 million under for information leading to location or identification of Iran based Al-Qaeda leader Muhammad Abbatay — also known as Abd Al-Rahman Al-Maghrebi.
Pompeo has accused Iran of links to Al-Qaeda in the past but has not provided concrete evidence.
Earlier accusations by the George W. Bush administration of Iranian links to Al-Qaeda’s Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States have been discredited. But reports have surfaced over the years of Al-Qaeda operatives hiding out in Iran.
A former senior US intelligence official with direct knowledge of the issue said the Iranians were never friendly with Al-Qaeda before or after the Sept. 11 attacks and any claims of current cooperation should be viewed warily.
Shiite Iran and Al-Qaeda, a Sunni Muslim group, have long been sectarian foes.
Relations between Tehran and Washington have deteriorated since 2018 when Trump abandoned Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal, which imposed strict curbs on its nuclear activities in return for the lifting of sanctions.
