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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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World

Trump Says Won’t Unfreeze Iran Assets Before Deal

A man walks past anti-US graffiti painted on the wall of the British Embassy in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP)
A man walks past anti-US graffiti painted on the wall of the British Embassy in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP)
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Trump Says Won’t Unfreeze Iran Assets Before Deal

A man walks past anti-US graffiti painted on the wall of the British Embassy in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP)
A man walks past anti-US graffiti painted on the wall of the British Embassy in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP)

US President Donald Trump said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he will not unfreeze Iranian assets before reaching an agreement with Tehran.

Asked whether he would be willing, as part of a potential agreement, to unfreeze Iranian assets or lift certain sanctions against Iran, Trump replied: "No."

"(That) comes after. If they behave, if they do a good job, we start talking," he said in the interview with NBC, recorded Friday.

Iran has demanded that billions in frozen assets be unblocked.

Trump reiterated that he knows exactly where the enriched uranium is located in Iran and wants to recover it one way or another, while remaining vague about whether he would send in US troops to do so.

"If we make a deal, if we make a deal now we're friendly, we'll all go together" to recover this uranium, he said. "We'll take it out and destroy it."

The fate of the enriched uranium is one of the most difficult points in reaching an agreement to end the war waged by the United States and Israel against Iran.

World

US Draft Resolution at IAEA Demands Iran Open Up on Sites, Uranium Stocks

The IAEA logo is displayed in front of the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, June 5, 2026. (Reuters)
The IAEA logo is displayed in front of the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, June 5, 2026. (Reuters)
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US Draft Resolution at IAEA Demands Iran Open Up on Sites, Uranium Stocks

The IAEA logo is displayed in front of the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, June 5, 2026. (Reuters)
The IAEA logo is displayed in front of the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, June 5, 2026. (Reuters)

The US is lobbying other countries on the UN nuclear watchdog's Board of Governors to back a draft resolution demanding that Iran tell the agency what happened to its bombed nuclear sites and the enriched uranium stored there.

The US-drafted text, seen by Reuters on Sunday and circulated ahead of this week's quarterly meeting of the 35-nation board, risks complicating talks between Washington and Tehran.

Iran has typically retaliated against resolutions against it at the International Atomic Energy ‌Agency, escalating its nuclear ‌activities or scaling back cooperation.

Previous IAEA board resolutions on ‌Iran, ⁠submitted by the US, ⁠Britain, France and Germany, have passed by wide margins. One adopted in November demanded that Iran inform the agency "without delay" about the status of its enriched uranium stock and damaged sites - something that has yet to happen.

STATEMENT OF INTENT

The US draft says Iran must "provide the Agency with precise information on nuclear material accountancy and safeguarded nuclear facilities in Iran" and grant "all access it requires to verify this information." Both steps are described as "essential ⁠and urgent" and must be taken "without delay".

The text stops short ‌of referring Iran to the UN Security Council, ‌a move some diplomats had said was under consideration. That would have followed up on a ‌June 12, 2025 resolution declaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations.

Israel began ‌bombing Iran's nuclear sites a day later.

The US mission to the IAEA declined to comment.

While circulating a draft does not guarantee it will be formally submitted to the board, which would then vote on it, it signals an intention to do so.

Current US-Iran talks aim ‌to extend their ceasefire and pave the way for broader negotiations, including on Iran's nuclear program.

US President Donald Trump has ⁠said his goal is ⁠to ensure Iran cannot develop nuclear weapons, something Iran denies seeking.

RUSSIA ACCUSES US OF UNDERMINING COOPERATION

While June's strikes destroyed or badly damaged uranium-enrichment facilities, much of Iran's enriched uranium is believed to have survived.

Trump has said he wants Iran's highly enriched uranium removed, particularly what remains of the 440.9 kg (972 lbs) enriched to up to 60% purity - a short step from roughly 90% weapons grade - that the IAEA estimates Iran had when Israel first attacked. That amount would be enough, if further enriched, for 10 nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick.

Russia's ambassador to the IAEA told reporters on Friday a resolution would only antagonize Iran.

"It was exactly the United States who undermined this cooperation," he said, referring to the fact the IAEA had access to Iran's sites until the bombing started.

Russia and China have opposed all recent resolutions against Iran.

World

Russian Strikes Kill Five, Damage Nuclear Storage Facility

15 September 2021, Ukraine, Chornobyl: A group of tourists stand at the memorial in front of unit four of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, which exploded in 1986. (dpa)
15 September 2021, Ukraine, Chornobyl: A group of tourists stand at the memorial in front of unit four of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, which exploded in 1986. (dpa)
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Russian Strikes Kill Five, Damage Nuclear Storage Facility

15 September 2021, Ukraine, Chornobyl: A group of tourists stand at the memorial in front of unit four of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, which exploded in 1986. (dpa)
15 September 2021, Ukraine, Chornobyl: A group of tourists stand at the memorial in front of unit four of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, which exploded in 1986. (dpa)

Russia fired waves of drones and other munitions at Ukraine on Sunday, killing at least five people and damaging a nuclear storage facility in the Chornobyl exclusion zone, Ukrainian officials said. 

Radiation levels at the facility remained within normal limits following the attack, although the building's reception was "partially destroyed", according to Ukraine's Energoatom nuclear energy operator. 

Moscow and Kyiv have intensified drone strikes on each other in recent months as US-led diplomatic efforts to end the war, now in its fifth year, remain stalled and sidetracked by the conflict in the Middle East. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to meet his allies in London later Sunday for talks on how to pressure Russia to end the fighting, after Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected direct peace talks with the Ukrainian leader. 

"A 'shahed' hit one of the buildings of the Centralized Spent Fuel Storage Facility," Zelensky said in a post on X, referring to the Iranian-designed "Shahed" drones that Russia fires at Ukraine on a nightly basis. 

"As of now, there are no readings exceeding normal background radiation levels. But there is certainly an increase in Russia's brazenness, which long ago went off the charts," he added. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency said it was dispatching a team to inspect the damage, calling the incident "deeply concerning". 

The facility is located in a remote area of forest around a dozen kilometers (seven miles) from the site of the 1986 Chornobyl disaster, and is designed to house spent nuclear fuel from Ukraine's three active nuclear plants. 

- Strikes on Ukraine - 

Russian strikes killed and wounded multiple civilians on Sunday, Ukrainian officials said. 

A Russian bombardment of a public transport stop in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region left at least two people dead, while a nearby drone strike killed a 56-year-old minibus driver, authorities said. 

A separate attack on the central Dnipropetrovsk region killed a 59-year-old man, governor Oleksandr Ganzha posted on Telegram. 

Hundreds of thousands have been killed and millions forced to flee their home since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. 

Russia -- which denies targeting civilians -- now occupies around a fifth of its neighbor: the Crimean peninsula, which it annexed in 2014, most of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk -- collectively referred to as the Donbas -- and large parts of the southern Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.