WASHINGTON, July 18 (AFP) - About eight hijackers in the September 11 attacks on the United States passed through Iran, but the United States has no evidence that Tehran sanctioned the strikes, the acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency said Sunday.
"This is not surprising to us. I think the count is about eight of the hijackers were able to pass through Iran at some point," John McLaughlin told "Fox News Sunday," confirming US media reports.
"We have ample evidence of people being able to move back and forth across that terrain," he said.
"We have no evidence that there is some sort of official sanction from the government of Iran for this activity," he said, adding that there was no evidence of a direct Iranian link to the 2001 attacks that killed 3,000 people.
Earlier Sunday, Iran acknowledged that suspected al-Qaeda members involved in the September 11 attacks may have passed through its territory, but insisted they would have done so "illegally."
"We have very long borders and it is impossible to totally control them," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.
"It is natural that five or six people could have crossed our borders illegally without us seeing them," he insisted. "The same thing happens on the border between the United States and Mexico."