Arab News

DUBAI/TEHRAN, 28 June 2003 — Ayman Al-Zawahiri, right-hand man of Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, and Suleiman Abu Ghaith, spokesman of the terror group, are among Al-Qaeda members detained in Iran, Al-Arabiya news channel said yesterday. Zawahiri, Abu Ghaith and one of Bin Laden’s sons are among a group of aides of the Al-Qaeda chief held in Iran, the Dubai-based satellite television said, quoting “Western diplomatic sources.”

Al-Arabiya, which did not name Bin Laden’s son, said the detainees included Saudis, Kuwaitis, Jordanians and Iraqi Kurds. An upcoming visit to Iran by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw will focus essentially on this issue, it said.

Iranian government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh said Monday that some Al-Qaeda members arrested in Iran had been identified but had refused to give any information about themselves, including the position they held within the organization.

Washington suspects Iran-based Al-Qaeda members are implicated in last month’s triple suicide bombings in Riyadh. Iranian leaders said that a handful of members of Bin Laden’s network were arrested before the May 12 attacks, which killed 35 people.

Recent press reports said that Abu Ghaith, who was stripped of his Kuwaiti citizenship, and Saad Bin Laden, the Qaeda chief’s elder son who is believed to play a key role in the organization, were in Iran.

Egyptian-born Saif Al-Adel, thought to have taken over as Al-Qaeda’s No. 3 from military operations chief Mohammad Atef, who was believed killed in Afghanistan, was also alleged to be in Iran. So was Abu Mussab Zarqawi, a Jordanian national of Palestinian origin who is thought to have previously operated from neighboring Iraq. Iran has brushed off the claims but has not revealed the identities of the Al-Qaeda operatives it is detaining.

Meanwhile a group of prominent Iranian student activists has called on the country’s embattled reformist President Mohammad Khatami to step in to defend the right to protest or else resign, according to an open letter received yesterday.

“These words are the last elements of a dialogue between the student movement and the regime of the Islamic republic. If this last link is broken the student movement will see no worth in dialogue,” the group of 106 activists wrote to the president. “If this happens, there will be grave consequences for the country,” they warned in the letter, which came in the wake of widespread anti-government protests and unrest.

“We ask you to prevent an uproar before it is too late by finding a good way forward. Otherwise, you must act bravely by resigning from your post so as not to legitimize the policy of repression,” Khatami was told.

Iran’s security forces made 4,000 arrests during the recent wave of anti-regime protests and unrest, with half of that number still being held, the Islamic republic’s prosecutor general was quoted as saying yesterday. “In total, 4,000 people were arrested across the country, and 40 percent of those arrested were immediately freed,” Ayatollah Abdolnabi Namazi was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.