KABUL -- Al-Qaeda de facto leader Saif al-Adel operates from a base in Shia-majority Iran despite his terrorist organization's Salafi militant ideology, which labels Shia as heretical apostates.
Egyptian-born al-Adel rose through al-Qaeda's ranks starting in 1989, advancing from explosives instructor to commander of Osama bin Laden's security detail before leading the group's military operations, according to the Wilson Center.
Since Ayman al-Zawahiri's death in July 2022, al-Adel has led al-Qaeda, according to a United Nations Security Council report from February 2023.
Yet the organization has not officially named him leader, which some analysts attribute to his controversial Iranian sanctuary.
His presence in Iran poses "difficult theological and operational questions" for al-Qaeda, Georgetown University's Program on Extremism noted.
"Al-Qaeda did not formally announce its new leader, possibly under pressure from Iran, or for security concerns, or to avoid endangering future access to Afghanistan," the Wilson Center reported.
Iran wields greater control over al-Qaeda than Afghanistan or Pakistan ever managed, it added.
Al-Adel's ties to the Iranian regime date back to the early 1990s, when Tehran and Hizbullah provided him with explosives training that enabled al-Qaeda's 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, according to the 9/11 Commission.
He relocated to Iran following the attacks, according to the US State Department.
"The continued presence of the al-Qaeda leader in Iran shows that the leaders of this network ... see their survival as requiring the cover of the Iranian regime," analyst Khalil Ahmad Afzali said.
Al-Adel regularly travels between Iran and Afghanistan's eastern provinces of Kunar and Nuristan to coordinate with regional terrorist groups, according to Afghanistan International.
"Iran's proximity to Afghanistan allows the al-Qaeda leader to move easily between the two countries, which strengthens the network," analyst Farhad Fasihi said.
"Al-Adel feels secure because of Iran's support," Fasihi added.
Ideological compromises
Al-Adel's leadership has been marked by stark ideological contradictions.
In a July pamphlet, he declared that "killing takes precedence over taking prisoners," according to the Middle East Media Research Institute.
This stance defies centuries of Islamic jurisprudence mandating humane treatment of captives and noncombatants.
More fundamentally, the leader of an organization notorious for anti-Shia violence from Baghdad to Kabul now depends on protection from Iran's Shia regime, further eroding al-Qaeda's claims of doctrinal purity in a clear bid for survival.
"For its own interests, the Iranian regime has sheltered the leader of a terrorist network involved in the murder of thousands of innocents," Afzali said, highlighting how both parties have subordinated ideology to expedience.
"Al-Qaeda and the Iranian regime have completely different, even contradictory ideologies, but al-Adel has accepted this humiliation to survive and has agreed to all of the Iranian regime's demands," he added.
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It is known that, Al-Qaeda is a terrorist organization and Iran also supports terrorists. It has done this in Afghanistan and in Syria and in the Levant, but can the United States and United Kingdom justify what you see in the link below? I myself am not interested in politics or in the East and the West, but I am a human being and my heart hurts for the oppressed people. Time passes, changes occur and transformations in the balance of power of the world's countries are natural, but history will never forget these atrocities. The future American and British generations will be ashamed to see such videos and images, because the massacre of Palestinians is supported by the mentioned two countries. https://x.com/i/status/1873241418975904209
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