Explained: What Osama Bin Laden has to do with US-Iran conflict

Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, has an alleged link to the U.S.-Israel joint military strikes on Iran.

When the U.S. President Donald Trump authorised airstrikes on Iran last month, he claimed Tehran was responsible for the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole. The attack killed 17 American sailors and left 37 injured. He repeated the claim days later at a press conference on Monday.

But contrary to his claims the U.S. government says Iran had nothing to do with it.

The official 9/11 Commission report concluded that the Cole bombing was carried out by Al-Qaeda. The man accused of planning it is Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who allegedly ran the operation on direct orders from Osama Bin Laden.

Al-Nashiri has been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2006. After more than two decades of legal delays, he is finally due to stand trial in June 2026.

But Trump's comments have put that trial at risk.

His defence lawyer, Allison Miller, says the President's remarks "impact our defence." She has formally requested the intelligence behind Trump's claims.

The U.S. government cannot prosecute al-Nashiri for the Cole bombing while the U.S. president publicly blames Iran for the same attack. The contradiction gives the defence something to work with.

Trump's off-script remarks may have accidentally handed a legal lifeline to the man accused of killing 17 American sailors.