‘Al-Qaeda figures not in Iran’

TEHERAN (Iran): Iran yesterday denied claims by Washington that three senior al-Qaeda figures are based in the country, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi was quoted as saying that Iran did not have “any information about their presence on its soil.”

He also reiterated Iran’s commitment to fighting terrorism.

The Obama administration last week slapped sanctions on the three, saying they were based in Iran, which it accused of helping transfer money and fighters from South Asia to the Middle East.

The move froze any assets they may have in United States jurisdictions and barred Americans from doing business with them.

The three — Saudi national Faisal Jassim Mohammed al-Amri al-Khalidi, Egyptian national Yisra Muhammad Ibrahim Bayumi and Algerian national Abu Bakr Muhammad Muhammad Ghumayn — were identified as “specially designated global terrorists”.

According to the US Treasury, alKhalidi is an al-Qaeda military commission chief and a former battalion commander who had ties with the Pakistani Taliban.

Bayumi is the group’s liaison with Iranian authorities and Ghumayn is in charge of al-Qaeda members who are living in Iran.

It did not provide more details on their whereabouts in Iran.

Ghasemi urged the US to share “precise information” about the three in order to “better combat terrorism”. AP