Iran Denies Claims of Terrorists' PresenceIran on Thursday vehemently rejected a US claim that the Islamic republic was sheltering several terrorists, denouncing the charge as "baseless and unfounded".Iran's state IRNA news agency quoted an unidentified official as making the response to Venice Canistraro, the chief of counter- terrorist operations of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who reportedly said on Wednesday that seven people in a 22- men list of the U.S. "most wanted terrorists" were believed to be in Iran. "This claim of the American official is categorically unfounded and baseless and such persons are not in Iran," the Iranian official said. U.S. President George W. Bush Wednesday unveiled a list of 22 " most wanted terrorists" including Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect of the September 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington. Washington has accused the Afghan Taliban regime of harboring bin Laden and launched military attacks last Sunday on the Taliban's targets. While condemning the terror attacks in the U.S., Iran, a neighboring country to the west of Afghanistan, is strongly opposed to the U.S.-British strikes over the Central Asian Muslim country. |
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