Iran, Dashti “was to undergo facial
plastic surgery” because he had already appeared in a propaganda
video and was therefore recognizable to European authorities.
However, Dashti did not get a chance to fool Western intelligence
officials, because he was killed in a drone strike in northern
Pakistan in early October 2010, after the Mumbai-style plot was
uncovered.

Initial reports indicated that Meziche was killed in the same drone
strike, but he survived it and is now being sheltered by the
Iranians. The New York Times reported in January that Meziche and
several other members of the cell are “waiting in Iran, trying to
return to Europe.” European authorities are not eager to see them
come back, as they pose obvious security risks.

Anonymous U.S. officials interviewed by the Times described Meziche
and one of his Iran-based compatriots as “lower midlevel” al Qaeda
operatives.“These two have been involved in al Qaeda external
operations activities for some time now,” one official said. Citing
multiple intelligence sources, the New York Times explained
that “Iran appears to be harboring them in hopes that, when and if
they leave, they will cause trouble in the West.”
Rami Makanesi, who set off for Tehran with Meziche, was not as
fortunate. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2010 and sentenced to
nearly five years in prison last year by a Frankfurt court.

Makanesi has his own ties to Iran-based al Qaeda operatives.
According to Guido Steinberg, a researcher in the Middle East and
North Africa division of the German Institute for International
Security Affairs, Makanesi met a top al Qaeda operative known as
Yassin al-Suri in February 2010. Steinberg, in his analysis brief for
IHS Jane’s, a military and intelligence