Iran ready to extradite some of 130 al-Qaeda detainees: Khatami

Agence France Presse
December 11, 2003

GENEVA, Dec 11 - Iran has arrested 130 suspected members of the al-Qaeda network and is ready to extradite some of them, President Mohammad Khatami said Thursday.

"Those who have committed crimes in Iran will be judged in Iran and the others will be extradited to their country of origin," he said through an interpreter during a news conference here.

"There is no place for al-Qaeda, no place for any terrorist, for those who act against peace in the world," he added.

Khatami said al-Qaeda was "very hostile" to the Iranian regime.

The United States has asked Tehran several times to extradite members of the terror group on its territory, most recently on Monday.

"We believe Iran should turn over all suspected al-Qaeda operatives to the United States or to countries of origin or third countries for further interrogation and trial," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington.

The US stressed that it was not discussing a swap of Iranian opposition People's Mujahadin members held by US forces in Iraq in return for al-Qaeda operatives held in Iran.

Khatami said Iran was ready to welcome opposition fighters who "are in Iraq and regret" past acts.

"We will welcome them and judge them according to the law," he said.

Reports over the weekend said Jordan's King Abdullah II was quietly trying to broker a deal between the United States and Iran on the prisoners.

Khatami had earlier delivered a sharp rebuke to the September 2001 attacks by al-Qaeda on the United States during a conference in Geneva.

He pointed out that the 20th century had been marked by unprecedented wars and violence, including the "ugly face of terrorism".

"It showed its ugliest face in the cities of New York and Washington in September 2001," Khatami told the conference on religious tolerance organised by a grouping of the world's Christian and Orthodox churches.