| Iran acknowledged for the first time Sunday that it has convicted some Iranian nationals of supporting al-Qaida, saying the number was fewer than five. The United States has accused Iran of harboring al-Qaida operatives, with some U.S. counterterrorism officials alleging hard-line elements within the Iranian regime may have developed working relationships with some senior al-Qaida officials who fled to Iran after the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. Iran has rejected the accusations. "A few pro-al-Qaida Iranian nationals have been tried and convicted," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters. Their number, he said, is less than "the fingers on one's hand," he said, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency. He did not give details, including when they were convicted, what sentences they had received or what sort of support they had provided Osama bin Laden's terror network. Asefi said cases of foreign nationals in Iran with alleged links to al-Qaida are still under investigation and no trial dates have been set, IRNA reported. |