Iran has taken into custody the third-ranking member of Al Qaeda, Saif al-Adel, United States officials said today, but has rebuffed an initial American effort to have him and other top Qaeda figures handed over to Washington. American and Middle Eastern officials said Iran had signaled that any surrender of Qaeda figures to the United States should be matched by a surrender to Tehran of members of the Mujahedeen Khalq, an Iranian opposition group that is on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. Many of that group’s members are in camps under American military supervision in Iraq. An American official said the United States had made “a recent approach” to Iran through a third party to ask that Mr. Adel and other Qaeda figures be handed over. But that American offer did not include any proposed swap, and the United States “did not receive a positive response,” the American official said. Full Story
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