Asharq Al Awsat, a newspaper that is controlled by the Saudi royal family, published a report today claiming that al Qaeda is using Iran as a “base of operations” for attacks inside the Saudi Kingdom as well as Jordan. The allegations are consistent with other evidence–including that found in the U.S. government’s unclassified Guantánamo files, a recent designation by the U.S. Treasury Department, and many other reports on al Qaeda’s activities inside Iran. Earlier this week, the Saudi regime issued a list of its 85 most-wanted terrorists. Asharq Al Awsat reports that 35 of them “were last seen in Iran, or in the Iranian-Afghan-Pakistani triangle.” The Saudis fear that they are either going to return home to plot attacks, or intend on “joining the al Qaeda cell in Yemen to participate in terrorist activities there.” As al Qaeda’s Yemeni arm gains in strength, Yemen is becoming more and more of a concern. And this latest Saudi report is yet another reason America should be worried about the prospect of repatriating large numbers of Yemeni detainees from Guantánamo to their homeland. Asharq Al Awsat‘s report builds on an earlier account in the New York Times. As the Times previously reported, one of the al Qaeda terrorists operating inside Iran is named Abdullah al Qarawi. He is reportedly running a network of more than 100 Saudis out of Iran. Asharq Al Awsat reports:
Asharq Al Awsat‘s account explicitly mentions two other Saudi terrorists operating in Iran. One is Abdullah al Abaed, “who is wanted by Saudi authorities for the murder of Major General Nasser al-Othman, a senior Saudi police officer, [and] is now currently in Iran after using forged travel documents to get there.” The second is Mohamed Abul Khair, a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden who is also his son-in-law. Asharq Al Awsat reports that Khair “had established ties with 9/11 hijacker [Ramzi Binalshibh], [and] is currently believed to be in the Iranian-Afghan-Pakistani triangle.” Someone should tell the Saudis that, according to many of America’s foreign policy gurus, Iran’s Shiites can’t cooperate with Sunni terrorists.
