U.N. Security Council Report Says Iran Harboring Al-Qaeda Leader

(New York, N.Y.) — On Monday, the U.N. Security Council received a new report from its Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team that Saif al-Adel is the “de facto leader” of al-Qaeda and that he is being harbored by the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. The U.S. State Department agrees with this assessment, saying, “al-Qaeda’s new de facto leader Saif al-Adel is based in Iran.” The U.N. report assesses that al-Adel’s leadership cannot be declared by al-Qaeda because his long-term presence in Iran raises “difficult theological and operational questions” for the group.

While the international community’s response remains to be seen, religious differences between al-Qaeda and the Islamic Republic will not likely hinder ongoing “operational coordination” between al-Qaeda and Tehran’s security forces. They share enmities toward the west, an interest in evicting the U.S. from the Middle East, and an aim of committing terrorist attacks against the U.S. and its allies and partners in the region, including Israel and Saudi Arabia.  

Trust between al-Qaeda and Iran has been built up over more than two decades. Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, for example, have a successful track record of extending protection to key members of al-Qaeda's operational structure, including Hamza bin Laden, Saad bin Laden, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. As a result, Iran will continue to be an effective operational headquarters for the terror group.  

By providing al-Qaeda operatives sanctuary, Iran directly violates U.N. Security Council Resolution 1390, which prohibits the harboring of al-Qaeda members. The U.N. report’s mention of al-Adel’s continued direction to al-Qaeda affiliate Hurras al-Din, which still aspires to attack the West, also raises concerns over the status of his facilitation network in Iran, which has been led by figures like Yasin al-Suri and Muhsin al-Fadhli in the past. This should trigger multilateral sanctions on the Islamic Republic, at the very least.  

To read UANI’s resource Al-Qaeda and Iran: Alliance Against the US, please click here. 

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