ICBPS- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday that al Qaeda had established a new home base in Iran. The Islamic Republic of Iran has allowed the al-Qaeda terrorist group to establish a new “operational headquarters” on its territory, US State Secretary Mike Pompeo said Tuesday.
In November, reports indicated that al Qaeda’s Abu Muhammad al-Masri, accused of helping to mastermind the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, was gunned down by Israeli operatives in Iran.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, however, denied the report, saying there were no al Qaeda “terrorists” on the Iranian soil.
We told the truth and took action. @StateDept designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including its Qods force, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2019. Because it is. https://t.co/vXgdOjKjRc pic.twitter.com/lOyRB00wcq
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) January 12, 2021
Pompeo told a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington that he was announcing publicly for the first time that al-Masri died on Aug. 7 last year.
Pompeo said his presence in Iran was no surprise, and added: “Al-Masri’s presence inside Iran points to the reason that we’re here today … Al-Qaeda has a new home base: it is the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
#BREAKING: Ahead of Pompeo's speech on #Iran and #AlQaeda, @USTreasury releases a slate of SDGT designations: https://t.co/cRvTdmrtE1 pic.twitter.com/DOjneWxZsk
— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) January 12, 2021
Following Pompeo’s speech, the U.S. Treasury released a slate of Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) designations, targeting Iran-related individuals.
Further, the United States Department of Justice announced that Washington has imposed fresh sanctions on three people for breaching US sanctions and sending “sensitive items” to Iran from the UAE.
