Recently, it was discovered that several of Osama bin Laden's children have been in Iran since 2001, where they have been held under house arrest. The discovery was made after bin Laden's daughter Iman called one of her brothers from the Saudi embassy in Tehran, to which she had fled after evading her jailors.[1] Subsequently, it was reported that the Saudi authorities were negotiating with Iran to permit her to leave the country and return to Saudi Arabia.[2]
In a sarcastic article, Saudi columnist Muhammad Al-Milfy wrote that this incident sheds light on the ties that exist between Iran and Al-Qaeda.
Following are excerpts:[3]
"A Young Saudi Girl Has Turned the Spotlight on the Ties and Relations... between Al-Qaeda and Iran"
"A young Saudi girl has turned the spotlight on the ties and relations which have existed between Al-Qaeda and Iran since the U.S. military's attack on Afghanistan in 2001... Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki responded to [the reports about] her presence in Iran during a New Year's Day [press conference], delivered in his famously jolly style. [His words] were at once amusing and saddening: he expressed amazement that Iman, bin Laden's daughter, had appeared at the Saudi embassy in Tehran, [and said] that the Iranian government had no idea how she had entered the country.
"The Iranian Foreign Minister, known for his amiability and his tendency to joke with his fellow statesmen around the world... ushered in the new year by giving the most prominent countries in the international community [an ultimatum of] one month to respond to the Iran's proposals [on the nuclear issue], putting Iran 'on an equal footing' with the superpowers. This, apparently, was his response to the extension [that the West] granted to his country [when it gave Iran] until the end of the previous year [to resolve] the nuclear crisis."
"How Can a Country that Demands to Participate in Running the World Let Its Border be Breached by a 17-Year-Old Girl?"
"Let us say, for the sake of the argument, that Iran can [indeed] converse with the world's greatest countries from a position of equality. Does this mean that the Iranian authorities can [also] convince their citizens that they are able to defend the country's borders and protect its security in the case of a catastrophe? Such a catastrophe seems quite imminent considering that a young girl [apparently] managed to infiltrate these borders. Perhaps she and 30 of her relatives, most of them children, crossed the border wearing invisibility cloaks?...
"The baseless excuses with which the Iranian regime justified its refusal to allow bin Laden's daughter to leave the country – namely that she had entered Iran illegally and must be interrogated [and then] brought to the border checkpoint – are ludicrous. How can a country that demands to participate in running the world let its border be breached by a 17-year-old girl – especially in these sensitive times, when [the security forces are] on the alert for any unusual incident, great or small?!"
"It Is Estimated that [There Are] Hundreds of Al-Qaeda Fighters [in Iran], If Not More"
"Iman bin Laden and her siblings, along with their children and spouses, are not alone in Iran. It is estimated that they are accompanied by hundreds of Al-Qaeda fighters, if not more. Prominent among these [fighters] is Saudi national Salah Al-Qar'awi, who appears on the list of 85 most wanted [terrorists] issued by the Saudi authorities in January 2009, and who has called his relatives from several different numbers in Iran!... There are also Suleiman Abu Gheith and Muhammad Makkawi. [Abu Gheith], a former officer in the Egyptian Special Forces, is known in [Al-Qaeda] as Sayf Al-'Adel ['Sword of Justice']. He is thought to be the organization's military mastermind, who plans its operations from Iran. Maybe he [works] in the building whose existence was exposed by Iman bin Laden after she took refuge in the Saudi embassy last month. She and her brother found themselves in [such a] dire situation [only] because of their father's deeds, and it is possible that throughout [their stay in Iran], this country and its proxies used them like commodities in the market, in order to carry out political blackmail.
"[I am afraid that] there is no room for hope that Tehran will let Iman leave the country, alone or with her brothers, [and join] the bin Laden family in Saudi Arabia, Syria, or Qatar. Considering what she knows about the complicated ties between Al-Qaeda and Tehran, she will not be allowed to leave so easily. It's possible that the Iranian secret services will sabotage the official understandings [in this matter], for they are the ones handling the relations with Al-Qaeda and other organizations of its sort. Don't be surprised if the Basij places thousands of its members outside the Saudi embassy in Tehran – in what will be presented to the world as a [spontaneous] civilian [protest] – and eventually [the crowd] will storm the embassy and the girl will be kidnapped.
"The Iman bin Laden affair exposes the depth of the ties that [Osama] bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri maintain with Iran. This affair does not require a strenuous investigation to explain it. Will clever people draw the obvious conclusions?"
Endnotes:
[1] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), December 23, 2009.
[2] Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia), December 27, 2009.
[3] Awan (Kuwait), January 7, 2010.
