Bin Laden son hails safe return of sister

The son of al-Qaeda kingpin Osama Bin Laden thanks Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria for securing the return of his 17-year-old sister to the Arab peninsula.

Omar bin Laden, who reportedly broke with his father before the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, said Friday that he is relieved and glad to have his sister, Iman, back in Saudi Arabia where she belongs.

"I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all those who helped my sister return to her country, particularly the Iranian Foreign Ministry and Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abd Al-Aziz," he told Al-Arabia.

Omar Bin Laden also thanked the government of Syria for making diplomatic efforts to resolve the issue.

"It goes without saying that we are going through quite an ordeal. There is a lot of malicious rumor and accusations regarding the Bin Laden family which is more than we can bear," he noted.

"But eventually, we hope and look forward to returning to our country [Saudi Arabia]," he added.

A flurry of media reports suggested late December that Iman Bin Laden, the daughter of the notorious Al-Qaeda ringleader, has taken refuge in the Saudi embassy in Tehran.

According to her brother Omar, Iman made her way to the Saudi Embassy about a month ago in a bid to be reunited with her mother, who lives in Syria.

The Saudi embassy in Tehran had confirmed the identity of Bin Laden's daughter, but said she had entered Iran illegally through the eastern borders of the country without proper documentation.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the woman would be free to leave the country once her identity bears out.

"A while ago, the Saudi Embassy said that one of Bin Laden's daughters was at the Embassy. [So] the Foreign Ministry told the Saudi Embassy that under [international] conventions, if her identity is confirmed the person could leave Iran with travel documents," Mottaki had said.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=115158§ionid=351020101.