TEHRAN, Dec 25, (Agencies): Iran rejected as “completely baseless” US allegations that it was harbouring an al-Qaeda member who is accused of operating as a facilitator and financier for the group from the Islamic Republic, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Sunday.
The United States announced on Thursday that it was establishing a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to Syrian-born Yasin al-Suri, who is also known as Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil.
“The American government’s recent unwise scenario regarding Iran’s involvement in the Sept 11, 2001 attacks and the presence of an al-Qaeda member in Iran is completely baseless,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said on Sunday, according to Fars.
Al-Suri has been accused of helping move money and recruits through Iran to al-Qaeda leaders in neighbouring countries under an agreement between the group and the Iranian government, Senior State Department official Robert Hartung has said.
The $10 million bounty was the first offered for an al-Qaeda financier and is aimed at disrupting a financial network that has operated from within Iran’s borders since 2005, the Treasury Department said.
On Friday a federal district court in Manhattan ruled that Iran and Hezbollah materially and directly supported al-Qaeda in the Sept 11, 2001 attacks and are legally responsible for damages to hundreds of family members of 9/11 victims who are plaintiffs in the case.
“The world should consider the consequences of such irresponsible behavior by American officials ... It is also necessary that the international community shows its deep concerns to the American government,” Mehmanparast said.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called the Sept 11 attacks on the United States a “big fabrication” by Washington that was used to justify the US war on terrorism.
The United States and its Western allies have been locked in a standoff with Iran over its disputed nuclear programme, which Washington believes is aimed at producing nuclear weapons but which Tehran says is solely for peaceful purposes.
Trial
Meanwhile, the daughter of Iranian former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is standing trial on charges of making anti-regime propaganda, her lawyer was quoted as saying on Sunday after a closed hearing.
“After the court told her about her accusation of propaganda against the regime, she and I gave our defence,” Gholam Ali Riahi, who represented Faezeh Hashemi at the hearing Saturday, said according to the newspaper Arman.
“In three days’ time, we will present the court with a supplementary defence text and then the court will decide,” the lawyer said.
Hashemi was arrested and released after taking part in a number of protests which erupted after a 2009 election which saw President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad returned to office despite opposition claims the vote was rigged.
Her father, an influential cleric who currently heads the country’s top political arbitration body, is facing harsh criticism from conservatives who demand he condemn publicly opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.
The cleric and former two-time president had indirectly supported Mousavi against Ahmadinejad in the 2009 election after he himself lost to the hardliner in 2005.
Rafsanjani in recent months has distanced himself from the opposition leaders and he condemned the last anti-government demonstrations staged by their supporters. But his stance has not satisfied the conservatives.
A son of Rafsanjani’s, Mehdi Hashemi, has also been targeted by court action in Iran. He left the country more than two years ago and now lives in London.
In another development, Israel’s foreign minister questioned Europe’s commitment on Sunday to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
“Unfortunately my impression is that some of the nations of Europe and senior figures there speak about sanctions more in order to calm Israel than to stop Iran’s nuclear programme,” Avigdor Lieberman said in speech to Israeli diplomats.
“And I tell you truly there is no need to calm us down. Any decision that we take shall be balanced and considered,” said Lieberman, an ultranationalist in Israel’s right-wing coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Speculation that Israel may attack Iran’s nuclear facilities was fuelled by a United Nations report last month that said Tehran appeared to have worked on designing an atomic weapon.
Israel sees Iran’s nuclear programme as an existential threat. Iran says its atomic activities are intended solely for the peaceful purpose of energy production.
In the speech, Lieberman called on Europe to take immediate and “courageous decisions” on Iran, saying “this is our expectation of the international community”.
Earlier this month, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak urged Europe to impose crippling sanctions on Iran, saying it was “time for urgent, coherent, paralysing” steps targeting Tehran’s oil trade and central bank.
Barak has sought to ease suspicions Israel is planning military action against Iran and possibly keeping its main ally, the United States, in the dark.
He told Israel Radio last week he was impressed by a “change of emphasis” in Washington, where Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta said “there are no options off the table” to handle Iran.
Barak has also said he still saw room for punitive, economic steps against Tehran.