The US confirms that the Egyptian Saif al Adel is the 'de facto' leader of Al Qaeda

MADRID, 16 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Government of the United States has confirmed this Wednesday that the Egyptian Saif al Adel, considered the 'number two' of Al Qaeda, is the 'de facto' leader of the terrorist group.

The US State Department has thus corroborated a previous United Nations report, which indicated that Adel currently lives in Iran.

Department spokesman Ned Price has indicated that Adel's presence on Iranian soil "is just another example of Iran's broad support for terrorism and its destabilizing activities in the Middle East and elsewhere," as it offers safe haven. to Al Qaeda.

Thus, Price has indicated that "the president (American, Joe Biden) has assured that he will not allow threats to arise that pose a challenge to the United States or its partners and allies.

"We are going to act decisively to thwart these threats," he asserted while recalling that Washington last year "eliminated the then leader of Al Qaeda, Ayman al Zawahiri" in Kabul.

Al Adel, who is part of the list of the most wanted criminals by the FBI, would be the "de facto and indisputable leader of the group", according to the opinion of different Member States during security discussions in the months of November and December, as It emerges from a report that has circulated in recent days.

"His leadership cannot be declared due to al Qaeda's sensitivity to the Afghan Taliban's concerns about not recognizing the death of Al Zawahiri in Kabul and the fact of (al Adel's) presence in the Islamic Republic of Iran," reads the document, collected by the newspaper 'The Guardian'.

For the time being, al Qaeda has yet to confirm the death of its leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in a US drone strike on July 31 in Kabul. After the death of its founder, Usama bin Laden, in a US operation in Abotabad (Pakistan) on May 2, 2011, the terrorist group took barely a month to announce that its 'number two', the Egyptian Al Zawahiri, was taking the reins.

Experts agree that the 'natural' heir to Al Zawahiri would be Al Adel, who could try to leave Iran for neighboring Afghanistan, where the new Taliban authorities are Al Qaeda's best ally and where the leadership of the organization.