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Exclusive: Tehran Sends Hamza Bin Laden to Afghanistan

Hamza bin Laden/AP
Hamza bin Laden/AP
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Exclusive: Tehran Sends Hamza Bin Laden to Afghanistan

Hamza bin Laden/AP
Hamza bin Laden/AP

Sources close to the family of Osama bin Laden told Asharq Al-Awsat on Monday that Iran lately interfered to send bin Laden’s son, Hamza, who lived with his mother in Tehran, to Afghanistan and not to Saudi Arabia, where the rest of his sons are staying.

“A number of bin Laden’s sons, their wives and their sons already returned from Tehran to Saudi Arabia,” the sources confirmed.

Hamza is the son of Khairiah Sabar, one of bin Laden's three surviving wives.

Omar, 37, the fourth son of the former Al Qaeda leader told Asharq Al-Awsat that five of his brothers and sisters from his mother Najwa al-Ghanem, the first wife of bin Laden, were staying in Tehran.

Omar exerted efforts to secure that his brothers and sisters leave Tehran. Those who have returned home are: Mohammed, Bakr, Fatimah, Iman and Othman.

“Contacts with high-ranking officials in Saudi Arabia facilitated their return home,” he said.

Omar explained that history would have changed had Iran allowed his brother Hamza to leave the country and travel to Saudi Arabia or Qatar.

“He wouldn’t be chased after,” he said.

Separately, Omar confirmed that his brother is now married to the daughter of Abu Mohammed al-Masri, denying reports that emerged in the past few days saying that Hamza has recently married a daughter of the lead 9/11 plane hijacker.

Some media outlets previously speculated she could be an Egyptian national in her late teens or early 20s, the daughter of Mohammed Atta, one of the leaders of the 9/11 attack and who personally rammed the northern tower of World Trade Center in New York City.

“He married neither the daughter of Mohammed Atta nor Mohammed Islambouli (a US-designated terrorist),” he said.

Masri is the second in command in Al Qaeda and is wanted by the US for his alleged role in the 1998 embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya.

Masri lived in Iran before he was released with five of Al Qaeda leaders in exchange for an Iranian diplomat who had been kidnapped in Yemen.

Bin Laden was shot by US Navy Seals during a raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan in 2011.

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Lavrov: Russia’s Relations with Syria Are Strategic, We Don’t Want Weak Truce in Ukraine

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with Vladislav Deinego, head of the Foreign Ministry of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic, and Sergei Peresada, deputy head of the Foreign Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, in Moscow, Russia February 25, 2022. (Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout via Reuters)
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with Vladislav Deinego, head of the Foreign Ministry of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic, and Sergei Peresada, deputy head of the Foreign Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, in Moscow, Russia February 25, 2022. (Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout via Reuters)
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Lavrov: Russia’s Relations with Syria Are Strategic, We Don’t Want Weak Truce in Ukraine

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with Vladislav Deinego, head of the Foreign Ministry of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic, and Sergei Peresada, deputy head of the Foreign Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, in Moscow, Russia February 25, 2022. (Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout via Reuters)
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with Vladislav Deinego, head of the Foreign Ministry of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic, and Sergei Peresada, deputy head of the Foreign Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, in Moscow, Russia February 25, 2022. (Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout via Reuters)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that the new ruler of Syria had called relations with Russia long standing and strategic and that Moscow shared this assessment.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said on Monday that Russia was in contact with Syria's new administration at both a diplomatic and military level.

On Ukraine, Lavrov said Russia sees no point in a weak ceasefire to freeze the war in Ukraine, but Moscow wants a legally binding deal for a lasting peace that would ensure the security of both Russia and its neighbors.

"A truce is a path to nowhere," Lavrov said, adding that Moscow suspected such a weak truce would be simply used by the West to re-arm Ukraine.

"We need final legal agreements that will fix all the conditions for ensuring the security of the Russian Federation and, of course, the legitimate security interests of our neighbors," Lavrov said.

He added that Moscow wanted the legal documents drafted in such a way to ensure "the impossibility of violating these agreements."

Reuters reported last month that President Vladimir Putin is open to discussing a Ukraine ceasefire deal with Donald Trump but rules out making any major territorial concessions and insists Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO.

Putin said last week that he was ready to compromise over Ukraine in possible talks with US President-elect Donald Trump on ending the war and had no conditions for starting talks with the Ukrainian authorities.

Putin said the fighting was complex, so it was "difficult and pointless to guess what lies ahead... (but) we are moving, as you said, towards solving our primary tasks, which we outlined at the beginning of the special military operation."

Trump, who has repeatedly said he will end the war, said on Sunday that Putin wanted to meet with him. Russia says there have been no contacts with the incoming Trump administration.

Trump's Ukraine envoy, Retired Lieutenant-General Keith Kellogg, will travel to Kyiv and several other European capitals in early January as the next administration tries to bring a swift end to the Russia-Ukraine war, according to two sources with knowledge of the trip's planning.

"I really hope that the administration of Mr. Trump, including Mr. Kellogg, will get involved in the root causes of the conflict. We are always ready for consultations," Lavrov said.

Putin says an arrogant West led by the United States ignored Russia's post-Soviet interests, tried to pull Ukraine into its orbit since 2014 and then used Ukraine to fight a proxy war aimed at weakening - and ultimately destroying - Russia.

After a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine's 2014 Maidan Revolution, Russia annexed Crimea and began giving military support to pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The West says Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine was an imperial-style land grab by Moscow that has strengthened the NATO military alliance and weakened Russia.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that Ukraine's membership of NATO is "achievable", but that Kyiv will have to fight to persuade allies to make it happen.

Moscow says the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO was one of the principal justifications for its invasion. Russia has said it any NATO membership for Ukraine would make any peace deal impossible.