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Iran Denies U.S. Allegations About Contacts With Al-Qaeda
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| Khatami for Afghan reconstruction
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TEHRAN, Dec. 31 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Tehran denied Monday U.S. media allegations that Iranian officials have held contacts with members of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, news agencies reported.
"There has been no meeting between Iranian officials and members of the Al-Qaeda network," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Hamid-Reza Asefi, said in a statement carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"The foreign media has lately attempted, in one way or another, to cast doubt on Iran and to insinuate that there were contacts with the Al-Qaeda network," he added.
Iran has a "clear public position on terrorism, the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda," Asefi said. "This is a clear proof that these allegations are false and baseless."
The New York Times, citing U.S. intelligence reports, claimed Monday that Al-Qaeda representatives had allegedly contacted Iranian intelligence agents in the mid-1990s seeking to forge an alliance against the United States.
The daily claimed a Bin Laden ally sought out Iranian intelligence officers in Afghanistan in 1996, in the hope that Tehran would join forces to strike U.S. targets.
That contact allegedly came after a visit to Iran in December 1995 by another Bin Laden associate, according to the documents the New York Times claimed to obtain.
Iranian intelligence agents reportedly responded that they were willing to meet personally with Bin Laden in Afghanistan, but the daily said it was unclear whether such a meeting ever occurred.
Since the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the debate over whether Bin Laden has received state support for terror has focused on Iraq.
The secret intelligence reports, however, show that Bin Laden and his allies were eager to turn to Iran, the Times wrote.
Iran, a fierce enemy of the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda network, has always provided political and military backing to Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, which defeated the Taliban with U.S. assistance in recent weeks.
Tehran has denounced the September 11 terror attacks in the United States, but has also condemned ensuing U.S.-led military operations in Afghanistan, which have resulted in the murder of hundreds of civilians.
Asefi, meanwhile, stressed Monday that the Islamic Republic of Iran will actively participate in the reconstruction of war-torn Afghanistan.
Addressing foreign and domestic reporters, Asefi said that following the Kyoto forum on Afghanistan's reconstruction, it was decided that a session be held in Tehran with participation of the foreign ministers of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as the
representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), to discuss how neighboring countries can contribute to the rehabilitation of Afghanistan, reported the official Iranian news agency (IRNA) Monday.
Iranian President, Mohammad Khatami, has stressed the issue, and officials of the Afghan interim government have welcomed the decision.
Meanwhile, Asefi rejected press reports Sunday that Iran had been dropped from the list of the countries named by the United Nations for the reconstruction of the war-ravaged Afghanistan.
Some section of the press had reported that Iran had been excluded from the U.N. list of countries selected for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
Asefi reiterated that Tehran is concerned about long-term presence of foreign forces in the Afghan territory and believes that presence of foreign military forces in that country will lead to instability of the entire region.
He further underlined the need for the establishment of security in war-torn Afghanistan by the Afghan nation, IRNA reported.
Asefi also expressed his concern about continued U.S. jet fighters attacks against Afghan civilians.
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