The U.S. government confirmed Wednesday that Egypt’s Saif al Adel, considered the ‘number two’ of Al Qaeda, is the ‘de facto’ leader of the terrorist group.
The U.S. State Department has thus corroborated a previous United Nations report, which indicated that Adel is currently living in Iran.
Department spokesman Ned Price said Adel’s presence on Iranian soil «is but another example of Iran’s extensive support for terrorism and its destabilizing activities in the Middle East and elsewhere,» as it provides safe haven for al Qaeda.
Thus, Price has indicated that «the president (U.S. President Joe Biden) has assured that he will not allow threats to emerge that pose a challenge to the United States or its partners and allies.
«We will act decisively to thwart those threats,» he said, recalling that Washington last year «eliminated the then leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri» in Kabul.
Al Adel, who is on the FBI’s list of most wanted criminals, would be the «de facto and undisputed leader of the group», according to the opinion of various member states during security discussions in November and December, as can be seen in a report circulated in recent days.
«His leadership cannot be declared because of al-Qaeda’s sensitivity to the Afghan Taliban’s concerns about not recognizing al-Zawahiri’s death in Kabul and the fact of al-Adel’s presence in the Islamic Republic of Iran,» reads the document, reported by the Guardian.
For the moment, Al Qaeda has yet to confirm the death of its leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in a US drone strike on July 31 in Kabul. After the death of its founder, Usama bin Laden, in a US operation in Abotabad (Pakistan) on May 2, 2011, the terrorist group took barely a month to announce that its ‘number two’, the Egyptian Al Zawahiri, was taking the reins.
Experts agree that the ‘natural’ heir to Al Zawahiri would be Al Adel, who could try to leave Iran for neighboring Afghanistan, where the new Taliban authorities are Al Qaeda’s best ally and where the organization’s leadership has traditionally been based.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
