ARAB-IRANIAN AFFAIRS - Aug. 11 - Tehran Handed Al Qaida Suspects To Riyadh.

Saudi FM Prince Saud Al Faisal says in an interview with ABC-TV in Jidda that Tehran has handed to Saudi Arabia 16 suspected Al Qaida fighters who fled Afghanistan. He adds: "The innocent will be let go and the guilty ones will be incarcerated and go to trial". Prince Saud says Tehran's "co-operation with us has been very important and very significant in fighting the terrorists". In a separate interview with The Washington Post he said information obtained from the captives was being made available to the US. Later in the day, Tehran confirmed it had handed over the suspected Al Qaida fighters to Saudi Arabia in June, with an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman saying: "Iran, in the framework of UN Security Council resolutions, has handed over the Arab-origin Afghans who entered Iran to their respective countries. Verifying that they belong to Al Qaida, or any other information related to them, is the responsibility of those countries".

Prince Saud said Riyadh officials travelled to Iran in May to question the detained fighters. He said: "We asked [the Iranians] to hand them over and they did. Iran has not only co-operated with Saudi Arabia in this conflict in Afghanistan but co-operated extensively with the United States". (In February, Tehran confirmed reports that it was holding at least 100 people from Arab countries who had crossed into Iran from Afghanistan. But officials in Tehran insisted that no Al Qaida members were among that group and described the detainees as refugees. Since then, Tehran has secretly turned over Arabs to governments that included Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, where the detainees have been interrogated, Arab officials said in recent interviews). But US senator Fred Thompson, a member of the Senate intelligence committee, played down the report of Tehran-Washington co-operation. He told the Fox News: "This is one instance that serves the purposes of the Saudis and also the Iranians. But over a longer period of time the track record has not been very good. As far as Iran is concerned, of course, there is an indication that they have co-operated with and assisted Al Qaida in times past".