TerrorismGrowing tensions in Iran-al Qaeda relationship
What began two years ago in Syria as one more manifestation of the pro-democracy Arab Spring, has soon deteriorated into an inter-communal conflict between Sunnis and Shi’as. This change in the nature of the Syrian conflict found the Shi’a forces in the Muslim world – Iran, Iraq, and Hezbollah – siding with the beleaguered Alawite regime of President Assad, at the same time that the Sunni forces in the Muslim world, including al Qaeda, were offering increasing political and material support to the Sunni-based anti-regime insurgency. Growing tensions between Iran and al Qaeda were the inevitable result.
Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, expelled by Iran // Source: al-shorfa.com
The civil war in Syria has claimed another victim: the cordial relationship between Iran and al Qaeda.
What began two years ago in Syria as one more manifestation of the Arab Spring, has soon deteriorated into an inter-communal conflict between Sunnis and Shi’as. This change in the nature of the Syrian conflict found the Shi’a forces in the Muslim world – Iran, Iraq, and Hezbollah – siding with the beleaguered Alawite regime of President Assad, at the same time that the Sunni forces in the Muslim world, including al Qaeda, were offering increasing political and material support to the Sunni-based anti-regime insurgency.
The Washington Post reports that the relationship between Iran and al Qaeda, always not much more than a marriage of convenience, began a decade ago with Iran quietly offering refuge to al Qaeda members who escaped Afghanistan after the collapse of the Taliban government in late fall 2001.
At one point, one of Bin Laden’s wives and several of children were allowed to live in eastern Iran.
Initially, al Qaeda members moved more or less freely in Iran, but before too long the regime, while allowing them to stay in the county, began to restrict their freedom of movement so it could keep a closer eye on them.
The more restrictive Iranian approach to hosting al Qaeda members was the result of both growing Western pressure, but also Iran’s own desire to make sure the Sunni militants would not be in a position to engage in activities inimical to the interests of the Iranian regime.
In the last two years, as the Syrian conflict deepened, Iran began to take more active measures against some of its al Qaeda guests, including expulsion of some of them. The most prominent case was that of Bin Laden’s son in law, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, who ended up in a U.S. court last Friday, charged with committing acts of terrorism.
Dan Byman, a counterterrorism expert at the Brookings Institution, told the Post that the manner in which Abu Ghaith was expelled appeared calculated to result in his capture, thus suggesting that Iran was signaling a shift in the relationship.
“It was a big move to send him not to Pakistan but in the opposite direction,” Byman said. “What we’re seeing is a slightly more confrontational al Qaeda policy, suggesting that Iran is becoming more uncomfortable in hosting these guys.”
Abu Ghaith, a Kuwaiti native, was told by the Iran that he had to leave Iran and go back to Kuwait. Kuwait, however, refused to accept him, so he flew to Turkey. The Turkish police arrested him, and arranged for him, on 28 February, to board a plane to Kuwait which, by that time, agreed to accept him He never made it to Kuwait, though: Turkey informed the United States that the flight would have a lay-over in Amman, Jordan, and when the plane landed there, Abu Ghaith was arrested by the Jordanian police and handed over to U.S. intelligence officers.
Even though Iran has expelled several al Qaeda operatives, and those remaining in Iran are kept on a tighter leash, some cooperation between the two sides remains.” We believe that Iran continues to allow al Qaeda to operate a network that moves al Qaeda money and fighters through Iran to support al Qaeda activities in South Asia,” David S. Cohen, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, told the Post.
Cohen pointed to the sometimes contradictory nature of the relationship between Iran and al Qaeda, saying that the same transit networks send “funding and fighters to Syria,” where militant Islamists linked to al Qaeda are battling pro-government forces supported by Iran.
“It is a partnership of convenience, with some really rough edges,” said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and counterterrorism adviser to the Obama administration.
There is no evidence suggesting that Iran has supported al Qaeda’s terrorist activities in the United States or Western Europe, but experts say that this may change under certain circumstances.
“You can envision a situation in which the Iranians very carefully assisted al-Qaeda in an attack on the United States, as long as the attack is seen as al Qaeda’s, with no Iranian fingerprints,” Riedel told the Post. “There is much that Iran could do, simply by facilitating travel.”
