“We have accurate information that bin Laden died of illness some time ago,” Moslehi told reporters after emerging from a cabinet meeting Sunday. He did not say where or when or of what illness bin Laden died.
Moslehi said, “If the US military and intelligence apparatus have really arrested or killed bin Laden, why don’t they show him? Why have they thrown his corpse into the sea? When we apprehended [Baluchi Jundollah leader Abdol-Malek] Rigi, we showed him and also aired his interview.”
Moslehi said the false claim of the White House to have killed bin Laden was a ploy to overshadow the awakening taking place across the Arab world. He also told reporters the Americans resort to such falsehoods to divert attention from their domestic problems such as their “fragile” economy.
Moslehi spoke after Al-Qaeda had announced that bin Laden was dead.
Six days after bin Laden was killed, the Iranian ambassador to Pakistan, Mashallah Shakeri, lashed out at the attack on bin Laden’s compound as a violation of Pakistani sovereignty. It was curious that it took almost a week for any Iranian official to take up that theme, which has been much heard in Pakistan.