Lawrence Wright: ‘Most Likely’ Person to Be Next Leader of Al-Qaeda Will ‘Come out of Iran’

On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “All In,” author and Staff Writer for The New Yorker Lawrence Wright said that he thinks “the most likely” person to take over the leadership of al-Qaeda in the wake of the death of Ayman al-Zawahiri is Saif al-Adl, who has been living in Iran, in addition to “several other al-Qaeda leaders” who have “been living there for decades.”

Wright stated, “Now, the next step, there are future leaders that have been trained for al-Qaeda. I think the most likely one is Saif al-Adl who — living in Iran now, as have several other al-Qaeda leaders, been living there for decades. And he may well come out of Iran and take over the leadership of al-Qaeda. I think he would be the most formidable candidate. He’s smart. He’s a strategist. He’s got great connections and a tremendous amount of loyalty from people that are in the organization now.”

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