WASHINGTON, Aug 2: Iran is holding Saif al Adel, the third-ranking member of the Al Qaeda network, but has refused to hand him over to the United States, the New York Times said on Saturday.

Iran will only surrender Al Qaeda members in its custody in exchange for members of the Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedeen-i-Khalq, many of whom are in US-supervised camps in Iraq, the daily said.

A US official approached Tehran through a third party about taking custody of Saif Adel and other Al Qaeda figures, but “did not receive a positive response”, the Times quoted a US official as saying.

Among those held in Iran, according to US and Middle Eastern officials, are Al Qaeda’s Kuwaiti-born spokesman Sulaiman Abu Gaith; Osama bin Laden’s Saudi-born son, Saad; and Abu Masab al Zarwaqi of Jordan, a close aide to Osama.

“We are confident that Iran is holding these people,” a US official said.

Saif al Adel is thought to have arranged the triple suicide bombings in Riyadh on May 12 that killed 35, and to have played a part in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed more than 200.—AFP