The Iran factor revisited

In its 2004 report the 9/11 Commission compiled and summarized the evidence of Iran’s links to al Qaeda. The report is accessible online here and easily searchable. Middle East Quarterly highlighted the commission’s findings on each of four threads concerning Iran here. Iran has always denied any involvement with al Qaeda. See, for example, the 2017 CBS News report “CIA docs from Osama bin Laden raid suggest Iran-al Qaeda link.”

One such Iranian thread involves aid to the transit of al Qaeda terrorists through Iran. This is the thread that Mohammad-Javad Larijani brazenly detailed in Farsi-language remarks broadcast on Iran’s state-controlled television, as I noted here yesterday. Larijani is an international affairs assistant in Iran’s judiciary. He presumably knows what he is talking about. As Adam Kredo puts it: “[Larijani’s] remarks represent the first time senior Iranian officials have publicly admitted to aiding al Qaeda and playing a direct role in facilitating the 9/11 attacks.”

Here we have something new under the sun. An Iranian authority now publicly boasts about the regime’s contribution to 9/11, at least in Farsi. It is a useful reminder that, as has been the case for some 40 years now, we have a debt to settle with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

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