An American official accused Iran of being deeply involved in planning attacks on ships in the Red Sea, stressing that the leadership of Al-Qaeda is currently in Iran, not Afghanistan.

The US Special Envoy and Coordinator of the Global Communication Center at the US State Department, James Rubin, said in a meeting with a group of media professionals at the US Embassy in London that the Houthi attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea are carried out with direct support from the Iranians, which is something that has always been the case. Tehran denied it. He explained: “On January 28, American forces seized more than 200 packages containing medium-range ballistic missiles and other deadly aid that was on its way to areas in Yemen under the control of the Houthis via a boat in the Arabian Sea. Since October, the Houthis have launched several medium-range Iranian ballistic missiles from Yemen towards Israel. The Iranians deny their relationship. But the facts are clear; “They are using disinformation and denial to try to hide their role in destabilizing entire global shipping operations, which means every country in the world faces increased costs and bears greater risks due to Iran’s actions.”

In response to a question from the Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat about the extent of Iranian support for the Houthi attacks, he replied: “We know that Iran is deeply involved in planning operations against commercial ships in the Red Sea,” refusing to go into details about planning the attacks

Rubin also accused Iran of “enabling terrorist groups and anarchist actors to operate in the greater Middle East region.” He pointed out that Iran “made it possible for (Hamas) to carry out the operations it carried out on October 7 by providing weapons and special training, and this is not related to whether they (the Iranians) were involved in planning them.” I say that they empowered (Hamas) through the training and support they provided to it,” adding that the process of empowering “Hamas” in Gaza included providing “tens of millions of dollars.”

The American official continued that Iran “hosts Al-Qaeda inside Iran.” Al-Qaeda leadership in Iran. The Iranians know that Al-Qaeda's headquarters are there. They (Al-Qaeda) enabled him and then lied about him. They know that Al-Qaeda's headquarters is there. “They used propaganda and misinformation to try to cover it up.” He added: “Why is Iran doing this? Because they are trying to create chaos, and this seems to be their goal.”

He confirmed, in response to a question from Asharq Al-Awsat, that the leadership of Al-Qaeda, the organization currently “actually” led by the Egyptian Saif al-Adel (the presumed successor to Ayman al-Zawahiri), is in Iran and not in Afghanistan.

Rubin stressed that “if the Iranian government did not want the (Al-Qaeda) leadership there, they would not be there. They are happy to be there, and then they deny their existence. Al Qaeda's leadership is the remnants of the group that carried out the operations that led to the War on Terror and all the chaos that followed from the beginning on September 11, 2001. The Iranian government allows them to exist and then denies that they are there. There are no important groups in Iran that the Iranian government does not want to exist.”