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Iran's Al-Qaeda Links
Hate Israel... hate Sunnis...
According to a report in the Financial Times, there is growing evidence that terror network al-Qaeda is using Iran as a communications and financial hub.
The only doubt seems to be to what extent Tehran tolerates or encourages the presence of al-Qaeda within its borders; One US intelligence source says that the best-case scenario would be Tehran "turns a blind eye" to terror activity, though he argues this is an overly cautious analysis.
Al-Qaeda operatives are said to move "with relative freedom" in the country, but Iranian analysts, while noting that the mayhem the terror network causes in Iraq benefits Iran, argue that Tehran fears al-Qaeda and wants to keep it at a distance.
The standard line on Iran and al-Qaeda links is that both sides are sworn enemies. Iran's Shias hate Sunni al-Qaeda, and al-Qaeda's links with the Sunni-led insurgency in Iraq do it no favours with Tehran, where memories of the bloody Iran-Iraq war, and Saddam Hussein's persecution of the Shias, still remain strong.
This thinking blends liberal wishful thinking and Foreign Office Arabism, and expects observers to suspend disbelief in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary, not least from far-flung Islamic terrorists themselves.
Certainly, the plight of Palestinians and Chechnyans differ; as do the arguments of Indonesian Islamist terrorists and those based in London or Madrid. Moroccans and Algerians, fed up with their undemocratic leaders, have different gripes from those busily converting children into suicide bombers in Pakistan's bloody Red Mosque.
And yet, it would be wrong to fail to identify common threads. A love of spectaculars, from the Beslan school siege to the bombing of Bali. A shared dedication to extremist Islamist ideology and rhetoric. The fact that many terrorists trained in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Even disparate, far-flung causes are identified as being shared by the Islamic "community" - Osama bin Laden himself ties all the pet causes of Muslims worldwide into al-Qaeda's raison d'etre, even throwing in a few of his own - "the tragedy of al-Andulou", that is, the fact that Muslims were kicked out of Spain 600 years ago.
Sunni or Shia, their calls for the destruction of Israel and war on the west are indistinguishable.
So, could Iran find common cause with al-Qaeda against the Great Satan? Russia and the United States fought the Nazis, after all. Furthermore, evidence came to light last year which suggested Iran was trying to groom a successor to Osama bin Laden, replacing the ailing terror chief with one of its favourites.
As EURSOC reported last November, the al-Qaeda terrorists Iran claims to have held under house arrest are operating freely: A bomb attack in Saudi Arabia was reportedly ordered by an al-Qaeda terrorist "held" in Iran.
This news comes as a trickle, and is largely passed over. Again, it conflicts with the dominant Arabist view that Sunnis and Shias will never mix, even when it is increasingly clear that old divisions have becomed poisoned with anti-western extremism.
