TEHRAN,
May 26 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - As top U.S. military
officials repeated U.S. allegations Iran is harboring members of the
al-Qaeda Tehran stressed Monday, May 26, it was not holding any
"important leaders" of the network.
"Al-Qaeda
members have been arrested in Iran, but the persons imprisoned are not
important leaders of al-Qaeda," foreign ministry spokesman
Hamid-Reza Asefi said.
"The
issue with Iran is pretty clear," Richard Myers, chairman of the
joint chiefs of staff, told NBC television's Today program.
"We
have to eliminate the safe havens where the terrorists are and Iran of
course has some of the al-Qaeda members," he said.
"The
reports are that al-Qaeda has been in Iran off and on for some time,
particularly after our actions in Afghanistan," Myers said.
His
comments came after weekend news reports that top U.S. officials were
preparing to meet Tuesday to discuss U.S. strategy toward Iran,
including possible Pentagon plans to foment a popular uprising there.
According
to one news report, officials will discuss suspending contacts with
Iran, but Myers could not confirm that.
"I'll
probably be going to that meeting, so I'll know more after we have the
meeting," he said.
This
came a day after Iranian ambassador to the U.N., Javad Zarif, said
Tehran was holding an undisclosed number of the group's members,
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"We
have had a number of al-Qaeda people in custody, and we continue
keeping them in detention, and we continue to interrogate them, and
once we have any information from them, we will pass them to friendly
governments," Zarif told news channels in an interview from
Tehran.
"We
have probably captured more Al-Qaeda people in the past 14 months than
any other country," he added.
The
diplomat asserted that Iranian authorities have not yet found Saif
Adel, al-Qaeda operations chief, wanted by the U.S.
He
noted that Iran wanted to reduce tensions with the United States but
would resist if Washington only speaks with “the language of
pressure”, said news agencies.
Washington
had asked Iran to hand over Al-Qaeda members allegedly operating from
the Iranian territories.
On
Sunday, May 25, a number of U.S. legislators said Washington needs to
have a new government in Iran that is more amenable.
U.S.
Representative of California Jane Harman, ranking Democrat on the
House Intelligence Committee, said she considered Iran "more of a
clear and present danger than Iraq last year."
Sen.
Joe Lieberman who strongly backed the Iraq invasion, said that regime
change is the answer in Iran.
The
U.S. and Iran recently conducted clandestine contacts after decades of
estrangement, but they were broken off by Washington amid claims
al-Qaeda operatives hiding in Iran were involved in planning the May
12 bombings in the Saudi capital Al-Riyadh.
The
Washington Post reported Sunday, May 25, that the
administration has cut contacts with Iran and "appears ready to
embrace an aggressive policy of trying to destabilize the Iranian
government."
The
United States is also accusing Iran of developing nuclear weapons, the
charge repudiated by Tehran
Reformers
Protest
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"The
reports are that al-Qaeda has been in Iran off and on for some
time, particularly after our actions in Afghanistan," Myers
said.
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In
a related development, Iranian authorities banned the publication of a
strongly-worded protest by reformist MPs to supreme leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei.
Ali
Shakurirad, a deputy from Iran's main reformist party, the
Islamic Participation Front (IPF), said the ban was ordered by the
Supreme Council of National Security, Iran's highest body
charged with security issues.
On
Saturday, May 24, a group of 127 reformist lawmakers lambasted
hardline-controlled institutions that have blocked their reform
agenda, calling directly on Khamenei to “intervene or risk watching
the Islamic republic crumble”, reported AFP.
On
Sunday, the letter was not covered in the Iranian press and was taken
off the Internet site of the student news agency, ISNA, just hours
after it was put online.
The
state news agency IRNA also ignored the MPs' protest.
Shakurirad
said that even reformist President Mohammad Khatami, who has seen his
standing weaken in the face of opposition from powerful conservatives,
was against the protest, and added that all discussion of the letter
had also been banned.
Nevertheless,
parliamentary sources said that an additional eight deputies had added
their signatures to the protest, bringing the list of signatories to
135 members of the 290-seat Majlis (parliament).
The
letter accuses hardliners of violently stalling reforms and denying
the will of Iran's voters.
"Perhaps
there has been no period in the recent history of Iran that was
as sensitive as this one," warned the letter, citing
"political and social gaps coupled with a clear U.S. plan to
change the geopolitical map of the region.
"If
this is a glass of poison, it should be drunk before our country's
independence and territorial integrity are put in danger," it
said, urging "fundamental changes in methods, attitudes and
figures".
The
letter charged that since President Khatami won his first term in
office six years ago, his agenda had been countered by an orchestrated
campaign of serial murders, arrests and crackdowns targeted at
reformists, students, journalists and dissidents, according to AFP.
"This
was to show Iranians and the world that nothing has changed and
nothing will change in Iran, and to prove that the vote of the
people whose major demand is change ... has no effect," stated
the letter.
"Not
much time is left," they stressed.
