Petraeus Claims Iran Aiding al-Qaeda

Bill Gertz
The Washington Times
March 17, 2010

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

Iran is assisting al Qaeda by facilitating links between senior terrorist leaders and affiliate groups, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East told Congress on Tuesday.

Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the U.S. Central Command, also said Iran’s nuclear program is facing problems, and as a result, Tehran is not expected to emerge with a nuclear weapon this year.

The exact details of when U.S. intelligence agencies estimate Iran will have a nuclear bomb are classified, but the timeline for developing a nuclear device has “thankfully slid to the right a bit,” he said.

On Tehran’s ties to al Qaeda, Gen. Petraeus said the group “continues to use Iran as a key facilitation hub, where facilitators connect al Qaedas senior leadership to regional affiliates.”

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This article was posted: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 10:17 am

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