State Department: 'Core' Al Qaeda in Iran -- By Thomas Joscelyn, The Weekly Standard

The State Department released its annual Country Reports on Terrorism yesterday. And once again the U.S. government has highlighted al Qaeda’s relationship with the Iranian regime. While the Iranians hold some al Qaeda members under house arrest, others are allowed to operate. And these terrorists, based on Iranian soil, play a prominent role in al Qaeda’s international network. 

“Iran remained unwilling to bring to justice senior al Qaeda (AQ) members it continued to detain, and refused to publicly identify those senior members in its custody,” the report reads. But the story doesn’t end there. 

“Iran allowed AQ facilitators Muhsin al Fadhli and Adel Radi Saqr al Wahabi al Harbi to operate a core facilitation pipeline through Iran, enabling AQ to move funds and fighters to South Asia and also to Syria.” 

As the State Department notes, al Fadhli “is a veteran AQ operative who has been active for years.”

(Click link below to read more)
READ MORE Sphere: Related Content