Iran denies exchanging detained al-Qaeda members
TEHRAN, Sept 8 (AFP) - The Iranian government denied accusations that it was seeking to exchange suspected members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network detained in the Islamic republic.
We haven't suggested any trade deal regarding combatting terrorism with any country," government spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh told reporters.
"Combatting terrorism is one of our goals because we have been the victim of terrorism," he added.Privately, a number of diplomats have said Iran has been trying to exchange al-Qaeda fugitives with detained members of the Iranian People's Mudjahedeen, a banned armed opposition group.
On Sunday, Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported that Tehran had made such an offer to the United States. Iran has acknowledged holding a raft of suspected al-Qaeda militants, including top leaders, but has refused to identify them.
Tehran has also launched negotiations with the home countries of these suspects but has said it would decide whether or not to extradite them.
It has also ruled out giving the United States access to them. Diplomats and Arab press reports have said the al-Qaeda members held in Iran include Osama bin Laden's son Saad, who has been stripped of his Saudi nationality; the movement's spokesman, Sulaiman Abu Gaith, a former Kuwaiti; and its number two and number three -- Ayman al-Zawahiri and Saif al-Adel -- both of them formerly Egyptian.
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=17858&NewsKind=Current%20AffairsIran Under Fire for Suspicions It Wants Atom Bomb
Tue September 9, 2003 06:03 AM ET
By Louis Charbonneau
VIENNA (Reuters) - Washington is winning more allies at the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog to back a U.S. demand that Tehran come clean about its nuclear program, which some believe is a front to build an atomic bomb, diplomats said Tuesday.
The United States -- which labeled Iran part of an "axis of evil" with North Korea and pre-war Iraq -- along with Canada and Britain is pressing the U.N. agency's board of governors to demand at this week's closed-door meeting that Iran enable U.N. inspectors to get to the bottom of its nuclear program.
In a situation reminiscent of the run-up to the war on Iraq, Washington found itself isolated when it tried to push the board to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for what it says is a clear breach of Iran's nuclear non-proliferation obligations.
But when U.S. officials dropped their Security Council plans, diplomats said most of the 35-nation Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) became ready to support a new resolution demanding Iran's "urgent and essential cooperation" with the IAEA.
The resolution will also call on Iran to quickly sign and implement a protocol permitting more intrusive, snap inspections, and to answer the IAEA's many outstanding questions about its uranium-enrichment program.
Some countries believe Iran's uranium-enrichment facilities could be at the heart of a secret weapons program, a suspicion fueled by the IAEA's recent discovery of traces of weapons-grade uranium at an enrichment facility in Iran.
Enrichment is a process of purifying uranium to make it usable in nuclear fuel, or when highly enriched, in weapons.
TEHRAN DENIES HAVING NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Tehran denies that it has a secret bomb program. It said the bomb-grade material came from "contaminated" machinery purchased abroad on the black market in the 1980s. This explanation has met with skepticism inside and outside the IAEA.
"To many, it is already clear that ... Iran is seeking the option of producing nuclear weapons through its own independent nuclear program," Jon Wolfsthal of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace wrote on his organization's Web site.
"Given its history of conflict with Iraq -- a state by no means guaranteed of a peaceful and stable future -- (and) perceived threats from Israel's and America's nuclear arsenals, Iran's position is understandable in some circles," he wrote.
Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Akbar Salehi, harshly criticized the U.S.-backed draft resolution -- now the focus of heated behind-the-scenes discussions in Vienna -- calling it a distortion of the truth, overly pessimistic and unacceptable.
"It's looking at things with pessimism," he told Reuters, adding that the resolution ignored the IAEA's praise of Iran's improved cooperation with the agency. "In other words, (it is) looking at the half-empty glass, and not the half-full."
A Western diplomat told Reuters that IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei helped rally support for the new U.S.-backed resolution when he indicated his support for the draft in comments to reporters before Monday's session began.
"I'm going to strongly urge Iran to clarify all issues relevant to its (uranium) enrichment program to make sure that all its enrichment activities have been declared and (are) under agency verification," ElBaradei said.
"It is absolutely essential for Iran to cooperate actively and...demonstrate full transparency with the IAEA as early as possible," he said.
http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3410842