Tehran, Aug 04: Iran insisted today on keeping secret the identities of al-Qaeda suspects it has detained and ruled out a tradeoff with Washington for members of the Iranian armed opposition people's Mujahedeen. The Islamic Republic is holding "important and less important members" of the al-Qaeda terror network, government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh told the reporters.
But "for security reasons, we say this is not the right time to reveal their identities", he said. The spokesman denied US press reports that the Iranian leadership was seeking an exchange with the US of al-Qaeda detainees for senior members of the Mujahedeen.

"The Iranian government has never spoken of such matters," he said. "We do not act in a selective manner against terrorism, and we do not take part in such wheeler-dealing." Ramezanzadeh said that no al-Qaeda members had set up base in Iran.
"There has been illegal movement back and forth ... But once we identified such persons or when intelligence services of friendly countries gave us information, we acted immediately and arrested them," he said.
"If they are citizens of friendly countries with which Iran has an extradition accord, they will be sent to their country of origin, and if they committed crimes and acts against Iran's national interests, the justice system will decide on their fate," the government spokesman said.
Bureau Report