Iran ‘has no info’ on al-Qaeda elements within the country

The US Treasury Department last Wednesday blacklisted “three members of al-Qaeda”, alleging they were “living in Iran.”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Tuesday, “The Islamic Republic of Iran has no information whatsoever on the presence of these people on its soil.”

The Iranian government, he said, “has always insisted on its unflinching will to confront terrorist groups and has taken the necessary measures [to confront them] in line with relevant international obligations.”

“Instead of issuing generalities, the US government should provide for the coordinated international fight against terrorist groups by sharing precise information,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry official said.

Iran’s military and intelligence apparatuses work in tandem against terrorist or militant elements within the country and have been successfully thwarting numerous terrorist operations against targets inside Iran.

Last month, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry nipped a Takfiri-Wahhabi plot to stage attacks in Tehran in the bud when special forces raided the hideout of the terrorists in the capital.

The country’s advisers have also been assisting Syria and Iraq in their fight against terrorists, including al-Nusra Front, which is al-Qaeda’s offshoot in Syria.

/SR