The U.S. State Department has released its annual report on international terrorism. Once again, Iran tops the list as the world's "most active state sponsor of terrorism."
Ambassador Dell Dailey, the U.S. State Department’s Coordinator of the Office for Counterterrorism, commented on the Iranian regime’s role in a range of terrorist endeavors:
"Iran provides aid to Palestinian terrorist groups, Lebanese Hezbollah, Iraq-based militants, and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. Despite its pledge to support the stabilization of Iraq, Iranian authorities continue to provide lethal support, including weapons, training, funding, and guidance, to some Iraqi militant groups that target coalition and Iraqi security forces and Iraqi civilians."
Mr. Dailey said that Iran, in coordination with its ally Syria, another state sponsor of terrorism, also helps to undermine the elected government of Lebanon.
The Iranian regime’s policy in regard to al-Qaida members who are currently living in Iran is an additional matter of concern. According to the State Department report, throughout 2007, "Iran remained unwilling to bring to justice senior al-Qaida members it has detained, and has refused to publicly identify those senior members in its custody. Iran has repeatedly resisted numerous calls to transfer custody of its al-Qaida detainees to their countries of origin or third countries for interrogation or trial." Also, says the report, Iran "continued to fail to control the activities of some al-Qaida members who fled to Iran following the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan."
Along with Iran and Syria, Cuba, North Korea, and Sudan were also designated state sponsors of terror. In addition to the funds, weapons, and safe-havens state sponsors provide to terrorists, the report says that some of these countries "have the capability to manufacture weapons of mass destruction that could get into the hands of terrorists." The potential threat of terrorists acquiring and using weapons of mass destruction poses one of the greatest security challenges facing the United States and its international partners today. The U.S., says the report, continues to insist that these countries end their support for terrorist groups.