New Partnership Between Iran and Al-Qaeda… What’s the Story?

Iran continues to allow Al-Qaeda to facilitate its terrorist activities, serving as a primary conduit for transferring funds and fighters to South Asia, Syria, and other locations.

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The U.S. State Department told Iran International: “Iran continues to deny the presence of Al-Qaeda in the country, despite being aware of the activities of Al-Qaeda leaders there,” a relationship dating back to early 2009.

The State Department also confirmed statements by James Rubin, the U.S. Special Coordinator for the Global Engagement Center, who recently spoke at a press conference in London about a “new partnership between Iran and Al-Qaeda,” stating that Iran hosts Al-Qaeda leaders on its soil.

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The department emphasized that “Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism, facilitating a wide range of terrorist activities and other illicit activities around the world, in Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, through armed groups such as Hezbollah.”

It is worth noting that in late January, the United Nations released a report revealing 8 new Al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, as well as 5 religious schools dedicated to teaching jihadist ideology.

The report cited several UN Security Council members stating that key figures in Al-Qaeda travel to provide a link between the organization’s effective leader, Saif al-Adel, who resides in Iran, and senior Al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan.

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Saif al-Adel, a former Egyptian special forces officer and a senior Al-Qaeda member, has become the “uncontested” leader of Al-Qaeda following the death of Ayman al-Zawahiri in July 2022 in a U.S. drone strike in Kabul.

The latest UN report highlighted that Al-Qaeda maintains safe houses to facilitate movement between Afghanistan and Iran in the provinces of Herat, Farah, and Helmand, with additional secure sites in Kabul.