Iran’s Silent Partnership With Al Qaeda

(New York, NY) – On Friday, the United States will pay tribute to the victims of the attacks of September 11, 2001. While Al Qaeda was primarily responsible, it is important to understand the role of Al Qaeda’s silent partner through the years—the Islamic Republic of Iran.

As the 9/11 Commission itself wrote, “there is strong evidence that Iran facilitated the transit of Al Qaeda members into and out of Afghanistan before 9/11, and that some of these were future 9/11 hijackers.” Today, Iran continues to maintain links to Al Qaeda. In its latest Country Reports on Terrorism, the U.S. State Department found that “Iran remained unwilling to bring to justice senior Al Qaeda [AQ] members residing in the country and has refused to publicly identify members in its custody. Iran has allowed AQ facilitators to operate a core facilitation pipeline through Iran since at least 2009, enabling AQ to move funds and fighters to South Asia and Syria.” There is also evidence Iran has been assisting the Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabab terrorist organization in Somalia. 

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI)’s report, Al Qaeda and Iran: Alliance Against the United States, analyzes this terror nexus. UANI’s website, Eye on Hezbollah, also outlines the relationship between Iran’s primary proxy Hezbollah and Al Qaeda.

To read UANI’s report, Al Qaeda and Iran: Alliance Against the United States, please click here.

To explore UANI’s website, Eye on Hezbollah, please click here.

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