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Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden – the world’s most wanted man – is alive and well and living in Iran, according to a documentary. However the Iranian president says that Osama is in Washington DC

He has given up the caves of Afghanistan or – as more recently believed – Pakistan, and is now living under the protection of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, it is claimed.

Bin Laden, his wife and family have been in the Islamic republic since 2003, the Feathered Cocaine documentary on Fox News alleges.

The film is about one of the world’s leading falconers, Alan Parrot, who says he knows all about bin Laden through the world of falconry.

The sport is hugely popular in the Middle East, with the best birds selling for more than £700,000 to the region’s richest and most influential people.

These same people conduct business while on hunting forays and, according to Mr Parrot, that was how he came to learn about bin Laden’s whereabouts.

The film shows a contact of Mr Parrot’s speaking to Icelandic film-makers Om Marino Arnarson and Thorkell S Hardarson.

The contact, described as a warlord from northern Iran, says he has met bin Laden six times since March 2003 on hunting trips inside Iran.

The man adds that bin Laden is “relaxed and healthy” and travels around with only four bodyguards.

The warlord, Mr Parrot explains, only agreed to talk because one of the falconer’s men had saved his life. “This was his repayment. He was asked to talk. He wasn’t happy about it.”

The last meeting with bin Laden that he knew about was in 2008, Mr Parrot says.

“There may have been more since then, but I haven’t talked to my source since we left Iran,” the falconer adds.

However Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he has an idea where the terrorist leader is holed up: not a damp cave in the Middle East, but some far cozier setting in Washington, D.C.

The apparently sarcastic quip came during an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos as Ahmadinejad responded to a claim in new documentary “Feathered Cocaine” that bin Laden has been living comfortably in Tehran, Iran, for years.

“Your question is laughable,” Ahmadinejad said with a smile. “Our position is quite clear. Some journalists have said bin Laden is in Iran. These words don’t have legal value. Our position towards Afghanistan and against terrorism is quite clear… I don’t know such a thing. You are giving news which is very strange.

“I heard that Osama bin Laden is in Washington, D.C.,” he added. When that remark was challenged, Ahmadinejad pressed further.

“Yes, I did. He’s there. Because he was a previous partner of Mr. Bush. They were colleagues in fact in the old days. You know that. They were in the oil business together. They worked together,” he said.

As for bin Laden sneaking into Iran, Ahmadinejad said Iran’s borders are closed to all illegal entries, “whether it’s the three American mountaineers, Mr. bin Laden, or anyone else,” he said, referring to the three American hikers who were detained in Iran last July and remain in custody.

“Rest assured that he’s in Washington,” Ahmadinejad said. “I think there’s a high chance he’s there.”