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Iraq has al-Qaeda's No. 3, but won't give him to US

Iran has taken into custody the third-ranking member of al-Qaeda, Saif Al Adel, US officials said on Friday, but has rebuffed an initial US effort to have him and other top al-Qaeda figures handed over to Washington.

American and Middle Eastern officials said Iran had signaled that any surrender of al-Qaeda figures to the US should be matched by a surrender to Tehran of members of the Mujahidin 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 US had made "a recent approach" to Iran through a third party to ask that Adel and other al-Qaeda figures be handed over. But that American offer did not include any proposed swap, and the US "did not receive a positive response," the US official said.

Published reports in recent weeks have identified various members of al-Qaeda, including Adel, said to be in Iranian custody. But the American and Middle Eastern officials who discussed the matter on Friday said they were certain that Adel and other figures were in Iranian hands, and they provided the first details of the failed American effort to win custody of the al-Qaeda figures and about Iran's interest in arranging a swap of terrorist suspects.

A US official said the American approach that was rebuffed by Iran had been relayed through the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which handles American interests there. The Swiss channel has been used successfully in the past by the American and Iranian governments, which do not maintain diplomatic relations.

Iran's intelligence minister, Ali Yunesi, acknowledged publicly for the first time last week that Tehran was holding both "small- and big-time elements of al-Qaeda," but his government has refused to identify those it says are in custody. An Iranian spokesman, Hamiz-Reza Asefi, said on Monday that Iran was "completing the files" on the al-Qaeda members before deciding their fate.

The Bush administration has likewise refused to say who it believes may be in Iranian hands. But the State Department has called on Iran "to deport these people either to jurisdictions where they're wanted or to their home countries."

The senior American and Middle Eastern officials who identified Adel as being among those in Iranian custody spoke on condition of anonymity.
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