LONDON: Iran has finally acknowledged what Western intelligence sources have been saying for months: that it is holding senior Al Qaeda officials who fled after the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

But if Tehran wants to satisfy its own neighbours that it is cooperating on security, and win a respite from Washington’s hard line, it will have to answer far tougher questions: Who are the suspects it is holding? What is it going to do with them?

And perhaps most uncomfortably of all: What have the suspects been up to all this time?

Iran watchers say Tehran is still far from demonstrating an unequivocal commitment to work with other countries to bring Al Qaeda members to book.

“The Iranians have had really a schizophrenic response to this,” said Josh Mandel, Iran expert at Control Risks Group, a London security consultancy. Other countries, such as Syria, had done a better job of making clear they would help, he said.

“I think what it reflects is the split within the Iranian leadership about how to act with America. The reason that it is taking Iran so long to do anything about it is because of their internal divisions,” he said.

Washington has long accused Tehran of offering sanctuary to Al Qaeda militants. Tehran denies such charges and says its considers Al Qaeda an enemy.

But the pressure from Washington and from other countries has increased sharply since the bombing of a diplomatic compound in Saudi Arabia in May. Washington said it believed the bombing was planned by figures located in Iran.

Iran has said for weeks it is holding some Al Qaeda members and is in talks with unnamed “friendly countries” about turning some of them over. But until this week, Tehran had insisted it had not identified the suspects and did not know how senior they were. On Wednesday, Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi finally acknowledged they include “a mixture of big and small members”.

Washington was unimpressed, and implied that the Al Qaeda figures might still be at large in Iran, perhaps with some official support.—Reuters