Bin Laden described Iran as al Qaeda's "main artery for funds"

Iran had offered some 'Saudi nationals' of al Qaeda all the support they needed at Hezbollah camps in Lebanon

The CIA has released hundreds of thousands of new documents, images, and computer files recovered during the May 2011 raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad.

One 19-page file in the cache of documents contains a senior al-Qaeda militant's analysis of the group's relationship with Iran.

According to the author's version of events in the 19-page dossier, Iran had offered some 'Saudi nationals' of al Qaeda all the support they needed in terms of 'money', 'arms' and 'training' at Hezbollah camps in Lebanon, in exchange for targeting installations of American interest in the Gulf region.

The document also alleges that Iranian intelligence agencies arranged the travel of some operatives, and provided shelter to others. Abu Hafs alMauritani, a radical with considerable influence in militant circles, helped facilitate the provision of safe houses for his al-Qaeda colleagues inside Iran.



The author of the document says that these men from al-Qaeda violated their terms of agreement with the host country, which led to a crackdown in which some Sunni militants present inside Iran were detained.

Iran and al-Qaeda are not at war with each other, and many of their 'interests intersect' when it comes to striking Americans, the author writes.

Released files also detail that Iran and al-Qaeda have not always been the best of friends, and were initially very suspicious of each other. The militant organisation also wrote a letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini, demanding the release of al-Qaeda family members who were in Iranian custody at the time.

Other documents seem to relate an incident in which an Iranian diplomat was kidnapped in exchange of men and women from al-Qaeda, and Bin Laden even laid out plans to counter Iran's regional influence, which he viewed as harmful to Sunni interests.

However, the al-Qaeda leader advised followers to treat the matter with great caution, writing in a letter that Iran was the organisation's "main artery for funds, personnel, and communication”.

Ever since 2011, high ranking US government officials have condemned al-Qaeda's 'core facilitation pipeline' inside Iran, and sources say these statements were partly based on the Abbottabad files released yesterday.