Iran: Al Qaeda suspects sent home
U.S. says no big fish turned over
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"Al Qaeda has no place in Iran," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said Sunday.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Responding to Iran's claims of having returned more than 200 suspected al Qaeda members to their home countries, a senior U.S. official told CNN that none appear to be top members of the terrorist group.
"We have no indication they've turned over any of the big guys," the senior U.S. official said on Sunday.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi told reporters in Baghdad that Iran has provided the United Nations with the names of 225 people who have been repatriated to their respective countries on suspicion of membership in the al Qaeda terror network.
He also said Iran has given the United Nations the names of about 2,300 people who have been arrested on its eastern borders, while trying to infiltrate into the country from Pakistan. According to Asefi, the arrests were made between late July and late October.
But he refused to reveal the names of suspected al Qaeda members in Iran, citing security concerns.
U.S. believes bin Laden spokesman in Iran
U.S. intelligence officials have said a shadowy group called the "al Quds force"-- the Jerusalem force -- part of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard organization, may be sheltering some al Qaeda leaders, including its military commander, Saif al-Adel, and Saad bin Laden, son of the al Qaeda leader.
Intelligence officials also believe that Sulemain Abu Gheith, bin Laden's spokesman, is in Iran as well.
"Al Qaeda has no place in Iran. The news that some people are present in Iran is absolutely not true. These are rumors, guessing," said Asefi, responding to a question about whether al-Adel was in the country.
A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition on anonymity, cast doubt on the foreign ministry claims.
"They've said things in the past of all manner," but never produce any terrorists, he said. "Put up or shut up," the official said in a message challenging the Iranian government.
Casting further doubt on the Foreign Ministry, he said, "You can tell when they are lying because their lips are moving."
U.S. President George W. Bush branded Iran as on of three nations in an "Axis of Evil." In his 2002 State of the Union address Bush claimed North Korea, Iraq and Iran were "seeking weapons of mass destruction" and posed a "grave and growing danger" to the U.S.
