Top News World Business Internet Technology Science Sports Entertainment Oddly Enough U.S. Politics Bin Laden Courted Iran to Form Alliance - Report December 31, 2001 12:31 AM ET Email this article Printer friendly version WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Emissaries for fugitive Islamic militant Osama bin Laden contacted Iranian agents in the mid-1990s in an effort to form an anti-American terror alliance, the New York Times reported Monday.

Citing secret U.S. intelligence reports, the newspaper said bin Laden's representative talked to Iranian intelligence officers in July 1996 about forming a partnership with his al Qaeda network to strike American targets.

The newspaper said, according to the American intelligence reports, the Iranian agents made clear they were willing to meet with bin Laden in Afghanistan. But the newspaper said it was unclear if such a meeting ever took place, and if so, whether any agreement was reached.

Just as their intelligence officers were considering whether to meet with bin Laden, the Iranian government was moving to oppose the Taliban movement, which had just gained control of Afghanistan, the newspaper reported.

-- Anonymous, December 31, 2001