US presses Iran to hand over al-Qaida suspects

THE United States is pressing Iran to hand over al-Qaida suspects believed

US officials told The New York Times that the message was delivered shortly after the suicide attacks in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh which killed 34 people, including nine Americans and two Britons.

US intelligence has picked up signs that al-Qaida members based in Iran might have been involved in the bombings, the officials told the newspaper.

Since the war in Afghanistan, the Bush administration has held a series of secret meetings with Iranian officials. “We passed them a message instead of meeting them face to face,” a senior administration official told the paper.

“The message was that this al-Qaida link is very serious. We and others concerned about the Saudi bombings have made clear Iran needs to co-operate with the Saudi investigation, and there is no reason to allow al-Qaida on Iranian territory.”

Iranian officials have repeatedly denied any involvement with al-Qaida.

Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Javad Zarif, said Tehran was co-operating in attempts to control al-Qaida, but would not respond to “the language of pressure”.

He said Iran had arrested members of the terrorist network, was interrogating them and would share information with other governments.

But he added that if there were members of the network operating in Iran, it was without the government’s knowledge or beyond its control.

Commenting on one report that the US had already cut off diplomatic contacts with Iran and was considering steps to destabilise its government, Mr Zarif said “certain elements” in Washington had always held that ambition.

An administration official said a meeting of top US officials had been scheduled for tomorrow and that one topic of discussion would be whether to suspend further diplomatic contacts with Iran.

The official said without signs of Iranian co-operation, it was possible such contacts would be suspended indefinitely.

Another administration official said there had been no “across-the-board decision to never talk to the Iranians again”. He and others have said there has been some evidence of co-operation by Iran in the last year.