Al Qaeda operatives have established “a new home base” in Iran where senior members of the terrorist group are “living a normal life” while developing new plots, according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“We ignore this Iran-al Qaeda nexus at our own peril,” Pompeo said Tuesday at the National Press Club. “They are partners in terrorism. Partners in hate.”
Pompeo offered that assessment after observing that a senior al Qaeda operative was killed in Tehran in August. He confirmed that death, and declassified other intelligence about the Iranian regime’s relationship with al Qaeda, in a warning that doubled as a closing argument against the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which President-elect Joe Biden and European allies hope to restore.
“Iran decided to allow al Qaeda to establish a new operational headquarters, on the condition that al Qaeda operatives inside abide by the regime’s rules governing al Qaeda’s stay inside the country,” he said. “Imagine that al Qaeda starts carrying out attacks at Iran’s behest — even if the control is not perfect. Who is to say that isn’t the next form of blackmail to pressure countries back into a nuclear deal?”
Pompeo has orchestrated a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran since President Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018, with an eye on establishing the sanctions “leverage” to force Iran to agree to tighter restrictions along a broader range of activity than the nuclear concerns covered by the pact. Biden’s win in the 2020 elections has cost Trump’s team the chance to oversee that expected negotiation, but Pompeo unveiled the Tehran-al Qaeda link to fortify the case for additional sanctions on Iran.
“Nations have an obligation to sanction entities designated as associated with al Qaeda under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1267,” Pompeo said.
Iranian officials have taken a series of aggressive actions recently, including the decision of jump-starting certain parts of their nuclear program and the seizure of a South Korean oil tanker in an apparent effort to build pressure on the Biden team to ease the economic sanctions that Trump renewed. The nuclear provocations have drawn condemnation from the European Union and key European governments.
“At this critical juncture, Iran’s action also risks undermining efforts aimed at building upon the existing diplomatic process,” the European Union’s high representative, Josep Borrell, said Monday.
Pompeo emphasized in a separate statement that “Iran’s threat goes much further than violating the JCPOA” as Tehran also challenges the nonproliferation treaty by contemplating a plan to expel international nuclear watchdog inspectors if Biden fails to provide sanctions relief.
“Every nation, not only the United States, will attach great importance to Iran’s compliance with these obligations,” Pompeo said Monday. “Nuclear brinksmanship will not strengthen Iran’s position but instead lead to further isolation and pressure.”
The announcement on Tuesday marked a final effort to deepen that isolation as the administration leaves power by arguing that Iran’s ties to al Qaeda could lead to additional terrorist attacks in Europe.
As Iran provides al Qaeda with travel documents such as passports, countries such as Germany are ripe to be the site of the recreation of something like the Hamburg cell, which was so instrumental in the 9/11 attacks.
“Everything changed in 2015, the same year that the Obama administration and the ‘E-3’ — France, Germany, and Britain — were in the middle of finalizing the JCPOA,” he said. “A sea change was happening within the Iran-al Qaeda axis … Every country must recognize that his unholy collusion is dramatically increasing the risk of terrorist attacks against their people.”
