I guess the Iranians are looking at what's going to happen with Iraq and have decided they they should look like they're doing their part in the "war against terrorism".

Go to Reuters for details.  You know, Reuters the arabist wahabist news service! [:P]

DaMan

More like, the Iranians are Shi'ite Muslim and the al Qaeda terrorists are Sunni Muslim, so the two don't get along to begin with.

Iran has been expressing support for the U.S. since the afternoon of September 11th.  Considering that, I think they were (quite reasonably) surprised to be labelled as an "axis of evil" power.

Someone else asked what terrorist activities against the U.S. have ever been committed by Iran -- the only one anyone came up with in the last 24 hours was the 1979-80 hostage crisis.  That was 22 years ago.  They must not be so evil, eh?

71-Hour_Achmed, I don't agree with your Sunni vs. Shi'ite theory.... At east as it pertains to this incident.

The US government has been accusing the Iranians of assisting the escape of al Qaeda and Taliban since late January.  See this article from "Time".
[url]http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,198857,00.html[/url]

Bush's "Evil Axis" remarks were taken as a serious threat by the Iranians.  They know that Bush is getting serious about Iraq and they don't want to risk being next!

Just my thoughts.  

DaMan

PS - I believe Reuters also has a new article on the situation.