Iran has provided the base for the new leader of the Al Qaeda Islamist terror organization, according to separate assessments released this week by the UN and the United States.
A UN report issued on Wednesday said Seif al-Adel—a former Egyptian intelligence officer with a $10 million bounty on his head — as the leader of Al Qaeda is based in Iran.
According to the UN report, “many Member States took the view that Seif al-Adel is already operating as the de facto and uncontested leader of the group.”
That same conclusion was endorsed on Wednesday by State Department spokesman Ned Price, who told a press briefing that al-Adel’s presence in Iran “is just another example of Iran’s wide-ranging support for terrorism, its destabilizing activities in the Middle East and beyond.”
Said Price: “Our assessment aligns with that of the UN – that al-Qaeda’s new de facto leader Saif al-Adel is based in Iran.” Al-Adel is wanted by the US for his involvement with the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
