Leadership Quote by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

A sentence that tries to sound like a routine security briefing, but reads like a carefully balanced act between confession and denial. Rafsanjani’s phrasing is engineered to signal cooperation against a universally reviled enemy while avoiding the political cost of admitting too much alignment with the West or too much vulnerability at home. The passive, almost bureaucratic rhythm - “some were arrested… they are imprisoned… charged with some actions” - keeps agency hazy. Who exactly? How many? Charged for what? Vagueness isn’t a flaw here; it’s the point.

The context is the early post-9/11 environment, when Iran had reasons to want al-Qaeda contained (Sunni jihadists were ideological rivals and a security threat) but also had reasons to keep its options open as U.S. pressure in the region intensified. By framing the movement as “crossing through Iran,” Rafsanjani implicitly rejects the accusation that Iran hosted or sponsored al-Qaeda, casting the country as a transit zone that acted responsibly once it detected fugitives.

“Some actions in Iran” is doing heavy lifting. It narrows Iran’s concern to domestic violations, not global terrorism, which helps Tehran maintain a posture of sovereignty rather than becoming a junior partner in Washington’s “war on terror.” At the same time, it quietly advertises leverage: detainees exist, information exists, bargaining chips exist. The quote’s real audience isn’t just the public; it’s rival factions inside Iran, suspicious neighbors, and foreign intelligence services listening for any sign of what Tehran knows and what it’s willing to trade.