Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

Osama bin Laden’s wife and children could be Tehran's trump card

Richard Beeston:
December 23, 2009

When Osama bin Laden’s family suddenly showed up at the Iranian border in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the regime in Tehran was faced with a quandary.

They could send the women and children back into Afghanistan where they would probably be captured by US forces. They could deport them to their homeland in Saudi Arabia, where they faced an uncertain fate. We now know that they chose to grant this innocent group of civilians asylum, albeit under conditions amounting to house arrest.

The regime may have been moved to allow them in on charitable grounds. Islam is clear about the need to give shelter to travellers who need protection, particularly fellow Muslims.

But the Iranians may have had another motive. Bin Laden adheres to a militant Sunni brand of Islam at odds with Iran’s dominant Shias, but there is a tradition in the Middle East of holding on to people who may one day be of use.

The bin Ladens could be valuable on two counts. The fugitive al-Qaeda leader has proved that he and his organisation are still capable of devastating attacks — it has been spared the fate of others on al-Qaeda’s hit list, such as Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

In the longer term, the war between America and militant Islam is about to intensify in Afghanistan and there are fears of a new conflict with Israel. The family could be bargaining chips with Kabul, Riyadh, Islamabad or even Washington.

What Iran seems to have failed to take into account is that this fast-expanding brood of bin Ladens has outgrown its desire to stay. That is a real headache.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6965713.ece