Tehran: Osama bin Laden`s daughter who has
taken refuge at the Saudi mission in Tehran is free to leave
Iran once her identity is confirmed, Foreign Minister
Manouchehr Mottaki was on Friday quoted as saying.
"A while ago the Saudi embassy here said the one of bin
Laden`s daughters is in the compound, so the foreign ministry
told the embassy that based on international conventions if
her identity is confirmed she can leave Iran with passage
documents," ISNA quoted Mottaki as telling state television
late yesterday.
"We were not able to confirm her identity but the embassy
says she is" the daughter of bin Laden, he added.
Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper earlier
this week quoted Omar bin Laden, the fourth son of the
Al-Qaeda chief, that one of his siblings, Iman, 17, had
recently sought asylum at the Saudi embassy in Tehran.
Fuad Qassas, the Saudi charge d`affairs at the kingdom`s
embassy in Tehran, confirmed Iman was staying there, according
to the newspaper, which said she has been seeking permission
to leave Iran, so far without success.
Omar bin Laden also said that five other siblings plus
one of his father`s wives who had been missing since the 2001
invasion of Afghanistan had been traced to Tehran, where they
are living under house arrest.
Omar, who lives in Qatar, said he only learnt his family
members were still alive after receiving a call last month
from his brother Uthman, who had been secretly given access to
a mobile phone by a young Iranian.
PTI
