The Hindu : Zawahiri to be handed over to U.S.?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 29, 2003

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International

Zawahiri to be handed over to U.S.?

Osama bin Laden (right) with his ally, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in this file photo.

Teheran June 28. Iranian security forces have arrested Ayman al-Zawahiri, said to be second in ranking in the Al-Qaeda terror network of Osama bin Laden, reports said on Friday.

The Al-Arabiya satellite television network cited unnamed diplomatic sources as saying Al-Zawahiri and the Al-Qaeda spokesman, Suleiman Abu Ghaith, were among several Al-Qaeda suspects Iran had arrested in recent months.

The two men are unlikely to be handed over to the United States, which includes them on its list of wanted terrorists. A U.S. delegation is to visit Teheran shortly.

In recent weeks, there has been considerable speculation in Teheran that Al-Zawahiri, a medical doctor nicknamed the ``Terror Doctor'', was among some 500 people which official sources said had illegally entered Iran from Afghanistan.

At the end of May, the Iranian Foreign Minister, Kamal Kharazi, made the first official comments that the detainees might include Al-Qaeda members. Arabic media reports said one of Osama's sons was in Iranian custody. Teheran is also believed to have handed several Saudi suspects over to Riyadh, and discussions with Cairo on the extradition of Egyptian suspects are said to be ongoing.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, Ayman Al-Zawahiri has come out of hiding on several occasions to make diatribes against the U.S. and Israel.

Iran has been locked in highly secretive and complex extradition talks with Egypt, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia over prisoners held here who are widely believed to be senior members of Al-Qaeda network.

According to the well-placed sources, the Islamic Republic could deal the biggest blow to the network since the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, by handing over some of Osama's closest aides. The sources said they have strong reason to believe that three top Al-Qaeda fugitives have been detained in Iran.

One is Egyptian-born Saif al-Adel, thought to have taken over as Al-Qaeda's number three from the military operations chief, Mohammad Atef, who was believed killed in Afghanistan.

The second is Saad bin Laden, one of Saudi-born Osama's eldest sons.

He is thought to have taken a senior position in the running of the network. The third believed to be in Iranian custody is Sulaiman Abu Gaith, a Kuwaiti-born Al-Qaeda spokesman. ``There is firm reason to believe that Iran is holding some senior Al-Qaeda,'' a source said. — DPA, AFP

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