Iran presses Saudi embassy on woman said to be bin Laden's daughter

Dec 27, 2009, 8:08 GMT

Tehran - Iran on Sunday blamed the Saudi Arabia embassy for failing to confirm the identity of a person said to be Osama bin Laden's daughter, who is currently in the Tehran diplomatic mission.

'The Saudi embassy has not yet made any efforts to confirm the identity of the person claimed to be bin Laden's daughter,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told official news agency IRNA.

Mehmanparast said that according to the Saudi embassy, the person entered Iran illegally and was seeking new documents to be able to leave the country.

'But the immigration office has told the Saudi embassy that according to Iranian laws, her identity should be clarified by the Saudis before any process regarding her departure could start,' the spokesman said.

'We cannot do anything before clarifying the identification of the person and so far the Saudi version is just a claim,' he added,

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said last week that the Saudi embassy had informed Iranian authorities 'some time ago' that the daughter of bin Laden was in the embassy and intended to leave the country, but there was no confirmation of her identity.