Iran Rejects US Allegations of Links to Al Qaeda Terrorists

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamad Javad Zarif accused U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of inventing fictitious ties between Tehran and al-Qaeda as a justification for his policy towards the Persian country.

After Pompeo's accusations, that was the Iranian reaction, who declared that "Al-Qaeda has a new base of operations: the Islamic Republic of Iran," while announcing sanctions against members of the terrorist network, which, according to Washington, would be based in Iran.

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Pompeo also announced a reward of up to $7 million for information about Al Maghreb, another of the alleged members of Al-Qaeda, who he claimed is in Iran and other members of the network. Some of them Pompeo claims were killed a few months ago.

In response, the Iranian foreign minister recalled that "the terrorists of September 11 came from Pompeo's favorite Middle Eastern countries and none from Iran," and expressed that the U.S. secretary "is pathetically ending his disastrous career with more warmongering lies."

Javad Zarif supported his statements by referring to Pompeo as "Mr. 'we lie, we deceive, we steal,'" in reference to a famous confession by Pompeo about U.S. incursions in the region, further questioning the secretary of state's "designation of Cuba [and] fictitious 'declassifications' about Iran and the statements of Al Qaeda."

Similarly, Tehran condemned Washington's decision to include Cuba in the list of countries that support terrorism, according to a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry: "The declarations that Cuba has cooperated with Venezuela in terrorism, as well as other accusations by the Americans, have no basis whatsoever and come from a horrible habit of making false accusations against its opponents."

The Iranian ministry spokesman stressed that his country fully supports Cuba and seeks to strengthen bilateral relations further.