Iran says US claim linking al-Qaeda leader to Tehran ‘laughable’

Iran’s foreign minister dismissed on February 16 the US claim that an Iran-based Egyptian has become the new leader of al-Qaeda, calling it “laughable.”

“I advise White House officials to stop the failed game of Iran-phobia. Creating news about the leader of al-Qaeda and linking it to Iran is laughable,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian wrote on Twitter, accusing Washington of being the “creator” of al-Qaeda and ISIS, Al Arabiya reports.

The US State Department said on February 15 that Saif al-Adel, an Egyptian currently based in Iran, had succeeded Ayman al-Zawahiri following the latter’s death in July 2022.

“Our assessment aligns with that of the UN – that al-Qaeda’s new de facto leader Saif al-Adel is based in Iran,” a State Department spokesperson said.

The United Nations report released Tuesday said that the predominant view of member states is that Adel is now the group’s leader, “representing continuity for now.”

But the group has not formally declared him “emir” because of sensitivity to the concerns of the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan, who haven’t wanted to acknowledge that Zawahiri was killed by a US rocket in a home in Kabul last year, according to the UN report.

In addition, the UN report said, the terrorist group al-Qaeda is sensitive to the issue of Adel residing in largely Shia Iran.