Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Iran May Be Harboring al Qaeda
Aired May 27, 2003 - 09:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: While the Bush administration considers toughening their Iran policy, Tehran continues to deny that it is harboring al Qaeda operatives.
Iran's foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi, yesterday told Iranian TV -- quote -- "Iran has been the pioneer in fighting al Qaeda terrorists who have been posing threats to our national interests. Iran was al Qaeda's enemy before the U.S. Iran has been the pioneer in fighting al Qaeda. Iran was their enemy before the U.S."
But U.S. officials question those claims, saying al Qaeda operatives chief -- operations chief, that is, Saif al-Adel planned the recent bombings in Saudi Arabia from inside Iran.
So is al Qaeda finding a haven in Iran? CNN Analyst Ken Pollack of the Saban Center at the Brookings Institute joins us now from Washington. Ken, good morning to you.
KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: Hi, Heidi, how are you?
COLLINS: I'm good, but what do you think? Are there al Qaeda operatives in Iran? And if so, how big of a concern is it?
POLLACK: Well, Heidi, I don't have any reason to dispute the Bush administration's claims that there are al Qaeda personnel in Iran. What I think that there is a great deal of ambiguity over, though, is exactly what they are doing in Iran and just what kind of acquiescence is there from the Iranian government. There are basically three possibilities: one, the al Qaeda members could be there and they could be being abetted by the Iranian government. Two, they could be in country and in custody of the Iranians. Iranians, as Kamal Kharrazi statement has said, have been fighting al Qaeda for a long time. Then again, the Iranians have also been known to strike marriages of convenience when it is necessary for them to do so. And the third possibility is that there may be al Qaeda personnel inside of Iran who the Iranians don't have any control over. Iran is a very big country. There are parts of Iran that aren't fully under the control of the government, particularly those areas around Afghanistan and Pakistan, and that may be where the al Qaeda operatives may be operating from.
COLLINS: Ken, do you think the Bush administration claims are a pretext for taking aggressive action against Iran?
POLLACK: Well, they may turn out to be, and I don't think that any of us really knows just yet what the Bush administration plans to do. My own sense is that I don't think the Bush administration has yet made up its mind. Like on so many other policy issues out there, there does seem to be a real fight within the Bush administration over how to handle Iran. There are some who are saying we took care of Afghanistan, we took care of Iraq, we have got to do Iran next. If we're serious about fighting terrorism, we have to take down the Iranian regime as well, and Iran and Afghanistan have showed us the way.
There is another wing of the Bush administration, though, which is saying something very different, which is saying Iran will be a much tougher nut to crack than either Iraq or Afghanistan was, and they are saying instead that the United States ought to use the leverage that it gained from the overthrow of Saddam Hussein to try to pressure Iran to stop its support for terrorism without actually engaging in a full-scale invasion.
COLLINS: Yes, and we actually saw some similar tough rhetoric from the Bush administration towards Syria following the war. How much of this is arm twisting, and also I'm wondering, how does Iran typically respond to these types of threats?
POLLACK: Well, with regard to how much of this is arm twisting, we just don't know. For some in the Bush administration, that is how they want to use this. They want to use this as leverage to try to get the Iranians to cease their ties with terrorism and also to end their nuclear program without having to go to war.
There are other people in the Bush administration who think that war is going be necessary, that it is going to be the only recourse with Iran. But your second question is a really important, which is that what we found over the years is that dealing with Iran is incredibly complicated subject. The Iranians are -- well, they are as difficult and complicated to deal with as the United States is for other countries. They have an enormously varied political system, they have an enormously varied political spectrum, and it is often very, very difficult to know exactly what is going on inside of Iran, or for the United States to actually be able to influence what is going on inside of Iran.
COLLINS: There will be much more discussion ahead on this very issue, I'm sure. Ken Pollack, our CNN analyst, coming to us from the Saban Center in our D.C. bureau this morning. Thanks so much, Ken.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 27, 2003 - 09:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: While the Bush administration considers toughening their Iran policy, Tehran continues to deny that it is harboring al Qaeda operatives.
Iran's foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi, yesterday told Iranian TV -- quote -- "Iran has been the pioneer in fighting al Qaeda terrorists who have been posing threats to our national interests. Iran was al Qaeda's enemy before the U.S. Iran has been the pioneer in fighting al Qaeda. Iran was their enemy before the U.S."
But U.S. officials question those claims, saying al Qaeda operatives chief -- operations chief, that is, Saif al-Adel planned the recent bombings in Saudi Arabia from inside Iran.
So is al Qaeda finding a haven in Iran? CNN Analyst Ken Pollack of the Saban Center at the Brookings Institute joins us now from Washington. Ken, good morning to you.
KEN POLLACK, CNN ANALYST: Hi, Heidi, how are you?
COLLINS: I'm good, but what do you think? Are there al Qaeda operatives in Iran? And if so, how big of a concern is it?
POLLACK: Well, Heidi, I don't have any reason to dispute the Bush administration's claims that there are al Qaeda personnel in Iran. What I think that there is a great deal of ambiguity over, though, is exactly what they are doing in Iran and just what kind of acquiescence is there from the Iranian government. There are basically three possibilities: one, the al Qaeda members could be there and they could be being abetted by the Iranian government. Two, they could be in country and in custody of the Iranians. Iranians, as Kamal Kharrazi statement has said, have been fighting al Qaeda for a long time. Then again, the Iranians have also been known to strike marriages of convenience when it is necessary for them to do so. And the third possibility is that there may be al Qaeda personnel inside of Iran who the Iranians don't have any control over. Iran is a very big country. There are parts of Iran that aren't fully under the control of the government, particularly those areas around Afghanistan and Pakistan, and that may be where the al Qaeda operatives may be operating from.
COLLINS: Ken, do you think the Bush administration claims are a pretext for taking aggressive action against Iran?
POLLACK: Well, they may turn out to be, and I don't think that any of us really knows just yet what the Bush administration plans to do. My own sense is that I don't think the Bush administration has yet made up its mind. Like on so many other policy issues out there, there does seem to be a real fight within the Bush administration over how to handle Iran. There are some who are saying we took care of Afghanistan, we took care of Iraq, we have got to do Iran next. If we're serious about fighting terrorism, we have to take down the Iranian regime as well, and Iran and Afghanistan have showed us the way.
There is another wing of the Bush administration, though, which is saying something very different, which is saying Iran will be a much tougher nut to crack than either Iraq or Afghanistan was, and they are saying instead that the United States ought to use the leverage that it gained from the overthrow of Saddam Hussein to try to pressure Iran to stop its support for terrorism without actually engaging in a full-scale invasion.
COLLINS: Yes, and we actually saw some similar tough rhetoric from the Bush administration towards Syria following the war. How much of this is arm twisting, and also I'm wondering, how does Iran typically respond to these types of threats?
POLLACK: Well, with regard to how much of this is arm twisting, we just don't know. For some in the Bush administration, that is how they want to use this. They want to use this as leverage to try to get the Iranians to cease their ties with terrorism and also to end their nuclear program without having to go to war.
There are other people in the Bush administration who think that war is going be necessary, that it is going to be the only recourse with Iran. But your second question is a really important, which is that what we found over the years is that dealing with Iran is incredibly complicated subject. The Iranians are -- well, they are as difficult and complicated to deal with as the United States is for other countries. They have an enormously varied political system, they have an enormously varied political spectrum, and it is often very, very difficult to know exactly what is going on inside of Iran, or for the United States to actually be able to influence what is going on inside of Iran.
COLLINS: There will be much more discussion ahead on this very issue, I'm sure. Ken Pollack, our CNN analyst, coming to us from the Saban Center in our D.C. bureau this morning. Thanks so much, Ken.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
